Tuesday, September 10, 2013

He is mighty who today is happy.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 BC – 8 BC), Horace wrote lyric poetry during the time of the Roman Emperor Augustus.

Odes, Book 3, XXIX

Fortuna 
 ... Ille potens sui laetusque deget cui licet in diem dixisse:
 'Vixi': cras uel atra nube polum Pater occupato uel sole puro...

Fortuna saeuo laeta negotio et ludum insolentem ludere 
pertinax transmutat incertos honores, nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna....

Fortune
 He is mighty, who today is happy and says :
"I lived!" whether tomorrow may clouds darken or sun shine...

Fortune delights in her cruel business and plays her haughty game
ever changing uncertain honors, now kind to me, and now another....


Sources.

The Latin Library

Poetry in Translation 

English poet John Dryden, Imitation of Horace (1685) wrote:

Happy the man, and happy he alone, 
He who can call today his own; 
He who, secure within, can say, 
Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.

No comments:

Post a Comment