He prays that now he has drained his malignant sickness
to the dregs he may one day see his home,
and may at Apollo's spring join in symposia
and many times pledge his heart to the pleasures of youth,
and in the company of discerning citizens
may hold the decorated lyre in his hands and attain peace,
causing no harm to anyone nor suffering it himself
at the hands of his fellow citizens.
ἀλλ᾿ εὔχεται οὐλομέναν νοῦ-
σον διαντλήσαις ποτέ
οἶκον ἰδεῖν, ἐπ᾿ Ἀπόλλω-
νός τε κράνᾳ συμποσίας ἐφέπων
θυμὸν ἐκδόσθαι πρὸς ἥβαν πολλάκις, ἔν τε σοφοῖς
δαιδαλέαν φόρμιγγα βαστάζων πολί-
ταις ἡσυχίᾳ θιγέμεν,
μήτ᾿ ὦν τινι πῆμα πορών, ἀπαθὴς δ᾿ αὐτὸς πρὸς ἀστῶν.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Prayer for Peace
Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.293-297 (tr. Anthony Verity):