Laudator Temporis Acti

Horace, Odes 3.29.29-48 (tr. David West):

Foreseeing all future time, God hides
what is to come in mist and darkness,        30
   and laughs if a mortal
      frets too much. Be sure to deal calmly

with what is here. Everything else
flows by like a river, now gliding peacefully
   in mid-channel down to the Tuscan sea,        35
      now rolling along eroded rocks

and uprooted trees, cattle, and houses all together,
with a great roaring of mountains
   and forest along its banks
      as the wild spate whips up        40

the quiet stream. A man will be in control of his life
and happy if he can say at each day's end,
   'I have lived.' Tomorrow Father Jupiter
      can fill the sky with black cloud

or pure sunlight, but he will not cancel        45
whatever is behind,
   nor reshape or unmake
      what once the fleeing hour has brought.

---

prudens futuri temporis exitum
caliginosa nocte premit deus,        30
  ridetque si mortalis ultra
    fas trepidat. quod adest memento

componere aequus; cetera fluminis
ritu feruntur, nunc medio alveo
  cum pace delabentis Etruscum        35
    in mare, nunc lapides adesos

stirpesque raptas et pecus et domos
volventis una non sine montium
  clamore vicinaeque silvae,
    cum fera diluvies quietos        40

irritat amnis. ille potens sui
laetusque deget, cui licet in diem
  dixisse 'vixi.' cras vel atra
    nube polum Pater occupato

vel sole puro; non tamen irritum,        45
quodcumque retro est, efficiet neque
  diffinget infectumque reddet,
    quod fugiens semel hora vexit.

Hat tip: Eric Thomson.