Bill Parsons's Blog – April 2008 Archive (4)

Just like the fate that binds together wolves and sheep, such is the difference between you and me-- you, with your sides burned by Spanish ropes and your shins by hard shackles. Although you can swagger about with your arrogant wealth, Fortune has not changed who you really are.



Don’t you see as you strut along the Via Sacra in your outrageous toga that passersby turn their eyes away in absolute disgust? “Cut by the lashes of the triumvir capitals until the herald was disgusted, now… Continue

If ever someone with an impious hand, has broken the aged neck of a parent, make them eat garlic-- it’s worse than hemlock! Oh, the tough guts of harvesters! What sort of poison rages in my stomach? Has the gore of a viper been boiled with these vegetables without my notice? Or has that witch Canidia handled this evil stew?



When Medea gazed upon Jason, shining brighter than all the rest of the Argonaughts, she anointed him with this stuff when he was about to bind the bulls unused to… Continue

Here goes Epode II





“Happy is he who avoids the rat race, like the ancient race of mortals, cultivates his ancestral lands with cows, who is free from debt, who’s neither a soldier, roused by the cruel trumpet, nor dreading the wrathful sea, nor living at the Forum and the haughty thresholds of more powerful men.



“So, when the shoots of his vines mature, he weds them to tall poplars, or in a remote vale, he watches the wanderings of the bellowing flocks, and removing… Continue

I am currently working on a translation of Horace's Epodes. I thought it would be nice to post some here for comment. Keep in mind that these are a work in progress and any comments woudl be appreciated.



Epode 1



Friend, you are going in a Liburtine galley among the ship’s tall ramparts, prepared, Maecenas, to undergo all of Caesar’s dangers yourself.



What about us, whose life will be sweet if you survive and loathsome if you don’t?

Should I pursue leisure,… Continue