Berkeley Undergraduate Journal of Classics

I originally translated Horace’s Ode 1.9 for a perfect translation exercise in Professor Ellen Oliensis’s “Lyric and Society” class. The poem has been a favorite of mine since I first read it because of its beautiful imagery and the way in which it melds several different scenes effectively into one piece. Particularly the first two stanzas struck me in their stark contrast of natural and human realms as did the last two stanzas which portray a sort of elusive intimacy that is completely different in setting and tone from the rest of the poem. My goals in translating were to remain close to the Latin, emphasizing details that stood out to me in Horace’s word choice, and to generally maintain the tone of each segment.