Quintus Horatius Flaccus, The Satires, 1.5: 50-104
| Sermonum, Liber Primus | The Satires, Book One | |
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(50) hinc nos Coccei recipit plenissima villa, quae super est Caudi cauponas. nunc mihi paucis Sarmenti scurrae pugnam Messique Cicirri, Musa, velim memores et quo patre natus uterque contulerit litis. Messi clarum genus Osci; |
(50) From this place a very plentiful villa of Cocceius, which is above the inns of Caudus, receives us. Now, my muse, I beg of you briefly to relate a fight of jesters Sarmentus and Messius Cicirrus; and from what ancestry descended each began the contest. The illutrious race of Messius-Oscan: |
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(55) Sarmenti domina exstat: ab his maioribus orti ad pugnam venere. prior Sarmentus 'equi te esse feri similem dico.' ridemus, et ipse Messius 'accipio,' caput et movet. 'o tua cornu |
(55) Sarmentus's mistress is still alive. From these ancestors of origin to the fight they came. First, Sarmentus: "I say that you have a look of a wild horse." We laugh; and Messius himself says "I approve" and shakes his head. |
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(59) ni foret exsecto frons,' inquit, 'quid faceres, cum sic mutilus minitaris?' at illi foeda cicatrix saetosam laevi frontem turpaverat oris. |
(59) He says, "oh, if your horn was not cut out from your forehead, what would you do, when you hornless threaten us so?" Moreover, that beastly scar had disfigured the hairy eye-brow on the left side of his face. |
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(62) Campanum in morbum, in faciem permulta iocatus, pastorem saltaret uti Cyclopa rogabat: nil illi larva aut tragicis opus esse cothurnis. |
(62) Having laughed at his Campanian disease, he asked him to dance the Cyclops shepherd dance: and he said that he had no need for a mask or tragic buskins |
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(65) multa Cicirrus ad haec: donasset iamne catenam ex voto Laribus, quaerebat; scriba quod esset, nilo deterius dominae ius esse; rogabat denique, cur umquam fugisset, cui satis una farris libra foret, gracili sic tamque pusillo. prorsus iucunde cenam producimus illam. |
(65) Cicirrus said much to this: he already presented a chain from wish/prayer to the household gods, he asked whether; the fact that he is a scribe, his mistress has no less rights over him. Finally he asked why he had ever fled, he, so slender and tiny, to whom one pound of grain would have been enough. We prolong the dinner pleasantly. |
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(71) tendimus hinc recta Beneventum, ubi sedulus hospes |
(71) From here we aim straight to Beneventum; where attentive host nearly set his house on fire, while the thrushes meagrely keep turning in the fire; For wondering through the old kitchen, Fire, having slipped away from the stove, a flame hastening to lick the highest part of the roof through the old kitchen. |
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(75) convivas avidos cenam servosque timentis tum rapere atque omnis restinguere velle videres. |
(75) You might have seen the greedy guests and the frightened slaves trying to snatch off dinner plates and trying to extinguish the fire. |
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(77) incipit ex illo montis Apulia notos ostentare mihi, quos torret Atabulus et quos nunquam erepsemus, nisi nos vicina Trivici villa recepisset lacrimoso non sine fumo, udos cum foliis ramos urente camino. |
(77) Next Apulia begins to show to me mountains known to me, which Atabulus scorches, and which we would have never climbed, if the villa has not received us, not without tearful smoke furnace burning wet branches along with the leaves. |
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(82) hic ego mendacem stultissimus usque puellam ad mediam noctem exspecto; somnus tamen aufert intentum veneri; tum inmundo somnia visu nocturnam vestem maculant ventremque supinum. |
(82) Here I, very stupid, wait continuously until the middle of the night for a deceitful girl; sleep at last steals me eager to Venus; then dream with a dirty sight spots my night clothes and my belly. |
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(86) quattuor hinc rapimur viginti et milia raedis, |
(86) From here we are dragged along by chariots for 24 miles, we will stay in a small town, which cannot be said by verse, by a sign can be said easily: here water the most worthless of things is sold; but the bread is by far the finest, so that the cunning traveller is accustomed to willingly carry it on his shoulders further; |
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(91) nam Canusi lapidosus, aquae non ditior urna: qui locus a forti Diomede est conditus olim. |
(91) for at Canusium bread is stony, the water is not better, which place was once found by brave Dionysus. |
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| (93) flentibus hinc Varius discedit maestus amicis. | (93) From here sad Varius leaves his friends with tears. | |
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(94) inde Rubos fessi pervenimus, utpote longum carpentes iter et factum corruptius imbri. |
(94) From that place we tired arrived at Rubi, in as much as we pluck the long journey and rain made very incorrectly |
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(96) postera tempestas melior, via peior ad usque Bari moenia piscosi; dein Gnatia Lymphis iratis exstructa dedit risusque iocosque, dum flamma sine tura liquescere limine sacro |
(96) The next day's weather was better, the road is worse all the way to the walls of Bus (Bari?), teeming with fish; then Gnatia, built upon angry waters, offered us both laughter and jokes, while the town wants to persuade us that here incense melts without fire |
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(100) persuadere cupit. credat Iudaeus Apella, non ego; namque deos didici securum agere aevom nec, siquid miri faciat natura, deos id tristis ex alto caeli demittere tecto. |
(100) Let Apella the Jew believe this, not me: For I have learned that gods live an untroubled life, that if nature were to do anything miraculous, the gods in their misery do not send it down from the high vault of heaven. |
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| (104) Brundisium longae finis chartaeque viaeque est. | (104) Brundisium is the end of both the long story and long journey. |