Horace - Dulce et Decorum Est original poem (English)

This is the English translation of the original Latin ode, written in the 1st century BC by Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (known as Horace in the English-speaking world), that Wilfred Owen is referring to in his famous poem "Dulce et Decorum Est"; the title is a quote of one of the verses from this ode, "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori", which can be translated as "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country" or "it is sweet and honorable to die for the fatherland". Owen calls this saying "the old lie".

The text presented in the video is the English translation found in "The Works of Horace" (1761) by Christopher Smart (1722–1771).

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY CHRISTOPHER SMART

Let the robust youth learn patiently to endure
pinching want in the active exercise of arms;
and as an expert horseman, dreadful for his spear,
let him harass the fierce Parthians;
and let him lead a life exposed to the open air,
and familiar with dangers.
Him, the consort and marriageable virgin-daughter
of some warring tyrant, viewing from the hostile walls, may sigh:
Alas! let not the affianced prince, inexperienced as he is in arms,
provoke by a touch this terrible lion,
whom bloody rage hurries through the midst of slaughter.
It is sweet and glorious to die for one’s country;
death even pursues the man that flies from him;
nor does he spare the trembling knees
of effeminate youth, nor the coward back.
Virtue, unknowing of base repulse, shines with immaculate honors;
nor does she assume nor lay aside the ensigns of her dignity,
at the veering of the popular air.
Virtue, throwing open heaven to those who deserve not to die,
directs her progress through paths of difficulty,
and spurns with a rapid wing
grovelling cowards and the slippery earth.
There is likewise a sure reward for faithful silence.
I will prohibit that man, who shall divulge
the sacred rites of mysterious Ceres,
from being under the same roof with me,
or from setting sail with me in the same fragile bark:
for Jupiter, when slighted, often joins
a good man in the same fate with a bad one.
Seldom hath punishment, though lame of foot,
failed to overtake the wicked.

ORIGINAL LATIN TEXT (Hor. Od. 3.2)

Angustam amice pauperiem pati
robustus acri militia puer
condiscat et Parthos ferocis
vexet eques metuendus hasta

vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat
in rebus. illum ex moenibus hosticis
matrona bellantis tyranni
prospiciens et adulta virgo

suspiret, eheu, ne rudis agminum
sponsus lacessat regius asperum
tactu leonem, quem cruenta
per medias rapit ira caedes.

dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidoque tergo.

virtus repulsae nescia sordidae
intaminatis fulget honoribus
nec sumit aut ponit securis
arbitrio popularis aurae:

virtus recludens inmeritis mori
caelum negata temptat iter via
coetusque volgaris et udam
spernit humum fugiente pinna.

est et fideli tuta silentio
merces: vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum
volgarit arcanae, sub isdem
sit trabibus fragilemque mecum

solvat phaselon: saepe Diespiter
neglectus incesto addidit integrum;
raro antecedentem scelestum
deseruit pede Poena claudo.

THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, AS IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 1761.

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The first and the second images were uploaded to Pixabay.com by users gancheva and mohamed_hassan respectively.