The Satires of Horace. Horace
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overhead
because its future seems so filled with dread.
Still, when Aquarius darkens the year45
as it begins its turn, the ant stays near
to home (wise creature!) drawing on its stash,
but as for you, no heat or snow, no flash- floods, fires or wars could interrupt your quest for wealth until your hoard exceeds the rest.50
What is the benefit that you create
with gold and silver you accumulate
in vast amounts if you just bury it
while you're alone and scared? You gripe,
“To split
it leaves a measly penny as my fraction.”55
But if you don't, what is your hoard's attraction?
Suppose a hundred thousand sacks of grain
come from your mill. Your stomach would remain
the size of mine; the outcome is the same
that it would be if somehow you became60
a slave whose shoulders hoisted loads of bread—
your idle peers would be no less well-fed.
Moreover, if you live your life aligned
with Nature's laws, what difference can you find
between a hundred acres to be plowed65
and ten times that amount? You cry out loud,
“But I prefer selecting what I please
from giant piles!”
Why praise your granaries
instead of bins if hoarding never offers
an improvement over modest coffers?70
It is as if you needed just a cup
or jug of water, but you summoned up
the gall to say,
“I would prefer you took
my portion from a river, not a brook!”
When savoring what luxuries provide us,75
we're swept downriver by the fierce Aufidus
along with all the flotsam that's nearby,
while he who longs for what can satisfy
his basic needs avoids those waves of mud
and does not perish when these rivers flood.80
But many people, lured by false desire,
will then respond,
“You never can acquire
too much because you are what you possess.”
What do you do with people who profess
such views?
Tell them to wallow in despair85
since that's the lot they chose!
I would compare
them to that Athens miser who, they say,
would mock his neighbor's gossip in this way:
“The peons always hiss, but when I see
my trunks of coins I shout, ‘Hooray for me!’”90
Dry-throated Tantalus just misses streams
that tease his lips—why do you laugh? It seems
that trading names would tell your story too.
You snore with moneybags surrounding you
and treat them with religious veneration95
or an art collector's fascination!
Don't you realize what your money means,
what use it serves? Go purchase bread, some greens,
a bit of wine, and any other stuff
that worries people when there's not enough.100
To lie awake half-comatose with fear
because bloodthirsty robbers might be near,
or flames, or slaves who try to rob you blind—
is that so great? For that I would not mind
if I remained among the destitute,105
since if you're feeling chills from fever shoot
right through your body, or some injury
is keeping you in bed, who will there be
to sit with you, to get your lotions ready,
to call the doctor when you feel unsteady,110
then ship you back to kids and other kin?
You would recover to your wife's chagrin—
and to your son's. You'll be despised by all,
by people whom you barely can recall:
friends, neighbors, children. Why does it amaze115
you that when you indulge your greedy ways
nobody gives you love you never earned?
Or, when your schemes for winning love were spurned
by family that Nature sent your way,
wouldn't your efforts cause the same dismay120
as if you gave your well-trained mule a crack
at racing stallions at the Campus track?
In short, be cautious as you get ahead,
and when you grow more wealthy, let your dread
of poverty decrease, and when you gain125
what you are seeking, let it ease your pain
so that you won't be like Ummidius,
who was—put bluntly—so cupidinous
he had to guess his count of moneybags
yet was so cheap he dressed in servant's rags.130
Until his final moments he would brood
about his risk of death from lack of food
until Tyndareus' boldest daughter,
a former slavegirl, used her axe for slaughter.
“Exactly what, then, are you urging on us?135
Live like Naevius or Nomentanus?”
You keep on posing opposite extremes!
When I advise against your chintzy schemes,
I'm not suggesting throwing cash around;
there surely is a balance to be found140
between Tanais and the family
by marriage of Visellus. There must be
measure in actions; bounds that do not change
define the moral only in their range.
So I return to where I first began,145
and ask why greed does not allow a man
to be content, and why he has to praise
those taking other paths and mope for days
about the larger udder of a goat
his neighbor prizes, then has to devote150 himself to serial oneupsmanship (though with the unwashed masses he will skip comparisons). In such a competition, a richer fool keeps blocking your position as when the chariots escape the gate155 and thunder forward at a reckless rate; in hot pursuit you'll find some charioteer who doesn't worry who is in the rear. In the same fashion, hardly anyone confesses joy, and then, when life is done,160 says goodbye like a guest who's had his fill. But I have also overstayed, and will not add a word so no one thinks I stole from droopy-eyed Crispinus some dull scroll.