Laudator Temporis Acti

Horace, Odes 2.14 (tr. C.E. Bennett):

Alas, O Postumus, Postumus, the years glide swiftly by, nor will righteousness give pause to wrinkles, to advancing age, or Death invincible—

no, not if with three hecatombs of bulls a day, my friend, thou strivest to appease relentless Pluto, who imprisons Geryon of triple frame and Tityos,

by the gloomy stream that surely must be crossed by all of us who feed upon Earth's bounty, be we princes or needy husbandmen.

In vain shall we escape from bloody Mars and from the breakers of the roaring Adriatic; in vain through autumn tide shall we fear the south-wind that brings our bodies harm.

At last we needs must gaze on black Cocytos winding with its sluggish flow, and Danaus' daughters infamous, and Sisyphus, the son of Aeolus, condemned to ceaseless toil.

Earth we must leave, and home and darling wife; nor of the trees thou tendest now, will any follow thee, its short-lived master, except the hated cypress.

A worthier heir shall drink thy Caecuban now guarded by a hundred keys, and drench the pavement with glorious wine choicer than that drunk at the pontiffs' feasts.

---

Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni, nec pietas moram
    rugis et instanti senectae
        adferet indomitaeque morti,

non si trecenis quotquot eunt dies,        5
amice, places illacrimabilem
    Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum
        Geryonen Tityonque tristi

compescit unda, scilicet omnibus
quicumque terrae munere vescimur        10
    enaviganda, sive reges
       sive inopes erimus coloni.

frustra cruento Marte carebimus
fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,
    frustra per autumnos nocentem        15
       corporibus metuemus Austrum:

visendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans et Danai genus
    infame damnatusque longi
       Sisyphus Aeolides laboris.        20

linquenda tellus et domus et placens
uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum
    te praeter invisas cupressos
       ulla brevem dominum sequetur.

absumet heres Caecuba dignior        25
servata centum clavibus et mero
    tinguet pavimentum superbo,
       pontificum potiore cenis.

25 dignior codd.: degener Campbell
27 superbo codd.: superbum ς Lambinus: superbus Barth: superbis Lynford

See Isaac Waisberg, Horace's Eheu Fugaces:A Collection of Translations.