Letter to Albius on Living Each Day as the Last — Horace, Epistles Book 1 (1.4.1–1.4.16), Latin & English

Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide iudex,

Albius, frank judge of my discourses,

quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana?

what should I say you are doing now in the region of Pedum?

scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat,¹

Writing something that would surpass the minor works of Cassius of Parma,

an tacitum silvas inter reptare salubris,

or strolling silently among the healthy forests,

curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque est?

meditating on whatever is worthy of a wise and good man?

non tu corpus eras sine pectore: di tibi formam,

You were not a body without a soul: the gods have given you beauty,

di tibi divitias dederunt artemque fruendi.

the gods have given you wealth and the art of enjoying it.

quid voveat dulci nutricula maius alumno,

What greater thing could a sweet nurse pray for her dear nursling,

qui sapere et fari possit quae sentiat, et cui

who is able to be wise and to express what he feels, and to whom

gratia, fama, valetudo contingat abunde,

favor, fame, and health fall abundantly,

et mundus victus non deficiente crumina?

and a decent livelihood with a never-failing purse?

Inter spem curamque, timores inter² et iras

Amid hope and care, amid fears and angers,

omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum,

believe that every day that has dawned is your last;

grata superveniet, quae non sperabitur hora.

the hour which is not hoped for will arrive as a welcome addition.

me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises,

You will visit me, fat and sleek, with my skin well cared for,

cum ridere voles, Epicuri de grege porcum.³

when you want a laugh—a pig from Epicurus’s herd.

Syntax notes4 items

1.4.3quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat
The subjunctive vincat is used with the relative pronoun quod in a relative clause of characteristic, describing works of such quality as to surpass those of Cassius of Parma.
1.4.12timores inter
An instance of anastrophe where the preposition inter is placed after its first object timores, while also governing the subsequent iras ('between fears and angers').
1.4.16Epicuri de grege porcum
An accusative phrase in apposition to me in line 15. Horace humorously and self-deprecatingly applies to himself the contemporary popular caricature of Epicureans as pleasure-seeking swine ('a pig from Epicurus's herd').
1.4.6cras
The reading cras (tomorrow) in the provided text is a typographical error for eras (imperfect second-person singular of sum). The translation follows the standard reading eras ('you were not a body without a soul') to maintain syntactic coherence.
Not located in the text

Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-22) · Revision history (1, latest 2026-09-22)

urn:cts:latinLit:phi0893.phi005.humanitext-lat2:1.4.1-1.4.16