Horace - Diffugere Nives (English)

A reading without music of the English translation of Poem 7 from Book 4 of the Odes, by Quintus Horatius Flaccus (known as Horace in the English-speaking world), a Roman poet that lived in the second half of the 1st century BC. This ode is known by the words with which it begins, "diffugere nives", which in Latin mean "the snow is gone". But the most famous quote taken from this poem is "pulvis et umbra sumus", which means "we are dust and shadows".

According to his students, the English scholar and poet A.E. Housman (1859 - 1936) considered this ode to be the most beautiful poem in all ancient literature.

Some notes to make the poem's subject matter clearer:

Torquatus is simply the person to whom the poem is addressed.
Aeneas is the legendary founder of Rome according to one version of the origin myth. His tale is told in Virgil's "Aeneid".
Tullus and Ancus are Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Martius, which were respectively the third and fourth historical kings of Rome.
In Greek mythology, Minos was the judge of the dead in the underworld.
Theseus was the mythological hero who slayed the Minotaur and became king of Athens.
Diana (Dian) was the virgin goddess of hunting. Hippolytus, who was Theseus' son, was dear to her, as he chose to be chaste and revere her over Venus, goddess of love. To punish him, Venus initiated a chain of events that lead to Hippolytus' death.
Pirithous was Theseus' most trusted companion. The two entered the underworld together with the goal of kidnapping Persephone, wife of Hades, the god of the underworld, but they found themselves trapped there and unable to leave. Eventually, Theseus was freed by Hercules, but Pirithous could not be set free, so he was stuck in the underworld forever.
Lethe is one of the rivers associated with the underworld.

The text presented in the video is the English translation found in "The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace" (1872) by John Conington (1825 – 1869). Conington's version is a beautiful "poetic" translation, that adds rhyme but respects the rhythm of the original latin poem by maintaining its alternating structure of long lines follows by short lines. In addition to this, the poem's subject matter is presented at least as clearly and faithfully as in most literal translations.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY JOHN CONINGTON

The snow is fled: the trees their leaves put on,
The fields their green:
Earth owns the change, and rivers lessening run
Their banks between.
Naked the Nymphs and Graces in the meads
The dance essay:
“No 'scaping death” proclaims the year, that speeds
This sweet spring day.
Frosts yield to zephyrs; Summer drives out Spring,
To vanish, when
Rich Autumn sheds his fruits; round wheels the ring,—
Winter again!
Yet the swift moons repair Heaven's detriment:
We, soon as thrust
Where good Aeneas, Tullus, Ancus went,
What are we? dust.
Can Hope assure you one more day to live
From powers above?
You rescue from your heir whate'er you give
The self you love.
When life is o'er, and Minos has rehearsed
The grand last doom,
Not birth, nor eloquence, nor worth, shall burst
Torquatus' tomb.
Not Dian's self can chaste Hippolytus
To life recall,
Nor Theseus free his loved Pirithous
From Lethe's thrall.

ORIGINAL LATIN TEXT (Hor. Od. 4.7)

Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis
arboribusque comae;
mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas
flumina praetereunt;

Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet
ducere nuda choros.
immortalia ne speres, monet annus et almum
quae rapit hora diem.

frigora mitescunt zephyris, ver proterit aestas
interitura, simul
pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit, et mox
bruma recurrit iners.

damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae;
nos ubi decidimus,
quo pius Aeneas, quo Tullus dives et Ancus,
pulvis et umbra sumus.

quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae
tempora di superi?
cuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico
quae dederis animo.

cum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos
fecerit arbitria,
non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te
restituet pietas;

infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum
liberat Hippolytum,
nec Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro
vincula Pirithoo.

THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, AS IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 1872.

ALL IMAGES ARE FREE TO USE UNDER THE CREATIVE COMMONS ZERO (CC0) LICENSE

The first and the second images were uploaded to Pixabay.com by users Visor69 and Reinhardi respectively.