§3.4.59dum venit huc rumor properataque carmina fiunt §3.4.60factaque eunt ad vos, annus abisse potest.
While rumor comes here and hasty poems are made and, once made, go to you, a year can pass.
It makes no small difference whether you are the first to pluck untouched rosebeds, or pluck them late, when almost abandoned, with a dilatory hand.
What wonder is it, if, when the flowers are gathered and the garden is exhausted, a crown has been made that is not worthy of your leader?
§3.4.65deprecor hoc: vatum contra sua carmina ne quis
I pray against this: let no one of the bards think these words were spoken against his own poems!
§3.4.66dicta putet! pro se Musa locuta mea est.
My Muse has spoken on her own behalf.
§3.4.67sunt mihi vobiscum communia sacra, poetae, §3.4.68in vestro miseris si licet esse choro, §3.4.69magnaque pars animae mecum vixistis, amici: §3.4.70hac ego vos absens nunc quoque parte colo.
I share sacred rites in common with you, o poets, if the wretched are allowed to be in your choir, and you, a great part of my soul, have lived with me, friends: in this part, though absent, I also now cherish you.
Therefore let my poems be recommended by your favor, poems on behalf of which I myself cannot speak.
§3.4.73scripta placent a morte fere, quia laedere vivos §3.4.74livor et iniusto carpere dente solet.
Writings please, generally, only after death, because envy is accustomed to hurt the living and to tear them with an unjust tooth.
If living badly is a kind of death, this land delays me, and only graves are lacking to my fate.
Finally, though the work of my care be blamed on all sides, there will be no one who reproaches my duty.
Though strength be lacking, yet the will must be praised: with this, I divine that the gods are content.
§3.4.81haec facit ut veniat pauper quoque gratus ad aras, §3.4.82et placeat caeso non minus agna bove.
This brings it about that the poor man also comes accepted to the altars, and a lamb pleases no less than a slaughtered ox.
The matter also was so great, that to withstand it would have been a grand burden to the highest bard of the descendants of Aeneas.
Even soft elegies could not bear such vast weights of triumph on their unequal wheels.
§3.4.87quo pede nunc utar, dubia est sententia nobis: §3.4.88alter enim de te, Rhene, triumphus adest, §3.4.89inrita motorum non sunt praesagia vatum.
Which foot I am to use now, my opinion is doubtful: for another triumph over you, Rhine, is at hand, the prophecies of inspired bards are not in vain.
§3.4.90danda Iovi laurus, dum prior illa viret.
The laurel must be given to Jupiter, while that earlier one is still green.
§3.4.91nec mea verba legis, qui sum summotus ad Histrum. §3.4.92non bene pacatis flumina pota Getis: §3.4.93ista dei vox est, deus est in pectore nostro, §3.4.94haec duce praedico vaticinorque deo.
You do not read my words, who have been removed to the Hister, to the rivers drunk by the not-well-pacified Getae: that is the voice of a god, a god is in our breast, under the guidance of this god, I predict and prophesy these things.
§3.4.95quid cessas currum pompamque parare triumphis,
Why do you delay to prepare the chariot and the procession for the triumphs, Livia?
§3.4.96Livia? dant nullas iam tibi bella moras.
The wars now grant you no delays.
§3.4.97perfida damnatas Germania proicit hastas.
Treacherous Germany throws down her condemned spears.
§3.4.98iam pondus dices omen habere meum.
Soon you will say that my omen has weight.
§3.4.99crede, brevique fides aderit, geminabit honorem §3.4.100filius, et iunctis, ut prius, ibit equis.
Believe, and soon proof will be here, the son will double the honor, and will go, as before, with yoked horses.
§3.4.101prome, quod inicias umeris victoribus, ostrum: §3.4.102ipsa potest solitum nosse corona caput: §3.4.103scuta sed et galeae gemmis radientur et auro, §3.4.104stentque super vinctos trunca tropaea viros: §3.4.105oppida turritis cingantur eburnea muris, §3.4.106fictaque res vero more putetur agi.
Bring out the purple, which you may cast upon the victorious shoulders: the crown itself can recognize the accustomed head: but let shields and helmets gleam with gems and gold, and let headless trophies stand over the bound men: let ivory cities be surrounded by turreted walls, and let the represented event be thought to be acted in a realistic manner.
§3.4.107squalidus inmissos fracta sub harundine crines §3.4.108Rhenus et infectas sanguine portet aquas, §3.4.109barbara iam capti poscunt insignia reges §3.4.110textaque fortuna divitiora sua, §3.4.111et quae praeterea virtus invicta tuorum §3.4.112saepe parata tibi, saepe paranda facit,
Let the squalid Rhine, with loose hair under a broken reed, and carry his blood-stained waters, now captured kings demand their barbarian insignia and woven fabrics richer than their fortune, and whatever else the invincible virtue of your people, often prepared for you, and often to be prepared, makes.