Saturday, April 18, 2015

Horace at your back viii: footholds


We mark an anniversary of
our earthquake, yours and
mine; one never hears the
San Franciscan say, You
couldn't understand it.
Rather, he believes we
do. He is, himself, a
constant, continuing mi-
grant toward settlement.







    What did you think of Chios,
    Bullatius, or of famous Les-
    bos, how did elegant Samos
    strike you, or Sardis, royal
    seat of Croesus, or Smyrna
    and Colophon, are they super-
    ior or inferior to their rep-
    utation?

    And you, my friend, accept
    with grateful hand whatever
    hour the god has blessed you
    with, and do not put off plea-
    sures to some unknown time, so
    that you may say .. you have
    lived happily; for if it is
    reason and forethought that
    take away our cares, not a
    site that commands a wide
    sweep of ocean, it is their
    climate, not their mind, that
    men change when they rush a-
    cross the sea.

































Horace
20 BC
John Davie
  translation
Satires and Epistles
  Epistles I, 11
op. cit.

April 18, 1906







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