_He tells the envious that the fame of Poets is immortal, and that
theirs is not a life devoted to idleness._
|Why, gnawing Envy, dost thou blame me for years of slothfulness; and
_why_ dost thou call poesy the employment of an idle mind? _Thou sayest_
that I do not, after the manner of my ancestors, while vigorous years
allow me, seek the prizes of warfare covered with dust; that I do not
make myself acquainted with the prosy law, and that I have not let my
tongue for hire [221] in the disagreeable courts of justice.
The pursuits of which thou art speaking, are perishable; by me,
everlasting fame is sought; that to all time I may be celebrated
throughout the whole world. The Mæonian bard [222] will live, so long as
Tenedos and Ida [223] shall stand; so long as Simois shall roll down to
the sea his rapid waves. The Ascræan, too, [224] will live, so long as
the grape shall swell with its juices; [225] so long as the corn shall
fall, reaped by the curving sickle. The son of Battus [226] will to all
time be sung throughout the whole world; although he is not powerful in
genius, in his skill he shows his might. No mischance will _ever_ come
to the _tragic_ buskin [227] of Sophocles; with the Sun and Moon Aratus
[228] will ever exist. So long as the deceitful slave, [229] the harsh
father, the roguish procuress, and the cozening courtesan shall endure,
Menander will exist. Ennius, [230] without any _art_, and Accius, [231]
with his spirited language, have a name that will perish with no lapse
of time.
What age is to be forgetful of Varro, [232] and the first ship _that
sailed_, and of the golden fleece sought by the chief, the son of Æson?
Then will the verses perish of the sublime Lucretius, [233] when the
same day shall give the world to destruction. Tityrus, [234] and the
harvests, and the arms of Æneas, will be read of, so long as thou, Rome,
[235] shalt be the ruler of the conquered earth. So long as the flames
and the bow shall be the arms of Cupid, thy numbers, polished Tibullus,
[236] will be repeated. Gallus [237] _will be known_ by the West, and
Gallus _known_ by the East, [238] and with Gallus will his Lycoris be
known. Though flint-stones, then, _and_ though the share of the enduring
plough perish by lapse of time, _yet_ poetry is exempt from death.
Let monarchs and the triumphs of monarchs yield to poesy, and let the
wealthy shores of the golden Tagus [239] yield.
Let the vulgar throng admire worthless things; let the yellow-haired
Apollo supply for me cups filled from the Castalian stream; let me bear,
too, on my locks the myrtle that dreads the cold; and let me often be
read by the anxious lover. Envy feeds upon the living; after death it is
at rest, when his own reward protects each according to his merit. Still
then, when the closing fire [240] shall have consumed me, shall I live
on; and a great portion of myself will _ever_ be surviving.