Quintus Horatius Flaccus
For this festival, Neptune’s day,
what course of action?
Why, off to the cellar, my friend,
Quick, off for the Caecuban.
An end to the confrontations
of philosophy!
It is getting towards mid day!
Surely you feel that.
Yet you act as if the bird of day
had stopped in mid air;
and you are so slow to grab that amphora
that has been lingering
since Bibulus was Consul.
Myself I am going to chant about Neptune
And his green-haired Nereids.
And you are going to respond
plucking your curved lyre
with Latona and the arrows
of swift shifting Cynthia.
And your chant shall end
with how she holds domain
Over Cnidos and the gleaming Cyclades
and above all Paphos,
visiting with harnessed swans.
And Night we must finally celebrate
with an appropriate lament.
Fred Beake
If you have any thoughts about this poem, Fred Beake would like to hear them
