A poet remembered

12 Comments

1. bearitone says:

   27 November 2008 at 1:04 PM

   Nunc est bibendum! is a phrase I believe to be appropriate to this occasion.
2. Andreas says:

   27 November 2008 at 1:30 PM

   Fr. Z:

   Interesting that you should mention this: I was just reading some of his poems. This one specifically struck me as particularly appropriate for our times: (taken from Book I, number 34):

   Parcus deorum cultor et infrequens
   insanientis dum sapientiae
   consultus erro, nunc retrorsum
   vela dare atque iterare cursus

   cogor relictos …

   If I was to reorder it for those who might have difficulty understanding I would put it this way:

   Insanientis sapientiae parcus et infrequens deorum cultor dum consultus erro, nunc retrorsum cogor dare vela atque cursus iterare relictos.

   More or less meaning: “A man of insane wisdom, sparingly devoted to religion, I allowed myself to be deliberately misled, and now I’ve got to turn my sail around and retrace my steps.”

   This is said because of some imminent danger showing the horrific divine power in nature which convinces the poet to return to his senses.

   How appropriate. I love the phrase “insanis sapientia”. Reminds me of St. Paul teaching about how God used the foolishness of this world to confound the wise. At times these ancients strike me as more christian than ourselves. They had a clearer world view, it would seem.
3. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf says:

   27 November 2008 at 2:00 PM

   Andreas: Yes… Horace has had a kind of “conversion” due to a thunderclap in the middle of a clear day.  Or so he says.  He is being ironic.  The midday thunder which so surprised and converted him probably has something to do with suviving intact the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC and obtained the patronage of Octavian’s friend Maecenas, who gave him the Sabine Farm. 

   The “crazy philosophy” he is talking about is probably Epicureanism.  Horace would become of polticial necessity and personal gratitude, an apologist for Augustus and the Roman ways.

   I love the oxymorons: “nutty wisdom” and “deliberately err”.
   
4. athanasius says:

   27 November 2008 at 3:49 PM

   Non usitata, nec tenui ferar
   Penna biformis per liquidum aethera
   Vates; neque in terris morabor
   Longius; invidiaque maior
   Urbes relinquam: non ego pauperum
   Sanguis parentum, non ego, uem vocas,
   Dilecte Maecenas, obibo,

   Nec Stygia cohibebor unda.
   Iam iam refidunt cruribus asperae
   Pelles et album mutor in alitem
   Superne; nascunturque leves

   Per digitos, humerosque plumae.
   Iam Daedalco tutior Icaro
   Visam gementis littor Bospori
   Syrtesque Gaetulas canorus
   Ales, Hyperboreosque campos.
   Lib. I, Ode 9
5. John P says:

   27 November 2008 at 4:29 PM

   Sorry, but the translation doesn’t follow the syntax.
   Even in Horace, the word order is important.
   “Insanis sapientiae” goes with consultus. “Consultus,”
   as in “iuris consultus”, so, “an expert in unwise wisdom”.
   “Parcus deorum cultor et infrequens — “parcus”, he
   doesn’t spend much money on sacrifice, and “infrequens”
   he doesn’t do it often.

   John P
6. Postumus says:

   27 November 2008 at 5:03 PM

   Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
   labuntur anni, nec pietas moram
   rugis et instanti senectae
   adferet indomitaeque morti
7. John P says:

   27 November 2008 at 6:25 PM

   Someone has to quote it:

   Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
   Vitabit Libitinam: usque ego postera
   crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium
   scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex.

   Et requiescat in pace magnus poeta atque amabilis.
8. Dr. Lee Fratantuono says:

   27 November 2008 at 8:59 PM

   My dissertation director, the late Professor Robert Carrubba, consummate gentleman and scholar, was a Horace expert (the Epodes). Although I specialized more in Virgil, it remains my fondest accomplishment to have co-authored my first article with him, on the Leuconoe ode 1.11.
9. jarhead462 says:

   28 November 2008 at 10:16 AM

   See, now I don’t know what any of this means. I wish that I did. It’s times like these that makes me think of how much I do not know, and how thankful that I am for Fr. Z and this blog. It also reminds me of how irritated I get when I think of how much I was NOT taught regarding the Faith, and myriad other things that are discussed here.(thank you 70’s “Catholic” school education)grrrr!

   Semper Fi!
10. matteo says:

    28 November 2008 at 10:45 AM

    hmm… crazy philosopher… Epicureanism… Fr. Z and his culinary passion?? connection?? [Epicureanism, a challenge to Platonism based on the teachings of Epicurus (+270 BC), is fundamentally atomic materialism. This lead to the conclusion that the gods were physical beings composed of atoms and that they were entirely detached from human affairs and had nothing to do with creation. Later this would be Epicureanism’s deepest point of conflict with Christianity, since in the Christian way of seeing things God created the cosmos from nothing and is directly involved with human affairs. But because Epicureanism is materialist, there was an emphasis on pleasure being a good, in fact, one of the only goods. Therefore Epicureans stressed moderate pleasure which allows a person to attain the free state where a person isn’t burdened with fear. In this state a person would be free to pursue knowledge, friendship, and the virtues. However, since your comment was meant to be a nasty jab, I have already removed your ability to read this together with your ability to respond. If you come back via some other IP address and post similar comments, I will take moderate pleasure from doing the same. o{]:¬) ]
11. Postumus says:

    28 November 2008 at 11:49 AM

    Sed non iam Capitolium scandit cum tacita virgine pontifex :-(
12. John P says:

    28 November 2008 at 3:32 PM

    non scandit Capitolium pontifex, sed ipse Horatius
    nunc etiam crescit laude recens.

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