Q. HORATII FLACCI SERMONES LIBER I - Horace's Satires

I. QVI FIT MAECENAS VT NEMO QUAM SIBI SORTEM

How be it, Maecenas, that none be content with life,
Whether by his Reason he hath chosen it, or Fate hath cast it on him?
Why doth he praise the pursuits of others different than his own?
'O blessed be the merchants!" saieth some soldier,
Who is heavy with years, his limbs wracked with toil.                                                       5
Yet in turn the merchant, as the raging Southerlies toss his ship
Saieth: "A soldier's life I'd rather have! Why? It happens fast!
In the same hour cometh either a swift death or happy victory!"
It is the farmer whom the lawyer praiseth, skilled in courts and law,
He grumbles as the client knocks on his door at cock-crow.                                              10
But the other, given bail for a court summons, is city-ward dragged,
And cries that only those living the city are blessed!
The rest of this kind -- oh! there are so many! -- are so chatty
They could tire out Fabius! Lest I keep thee, harken well,
To what I shall lay down: should any god say, "Lo! I shall                                                15
Now indeed make ye what ye want! For thou who was just a soldier,
Be a merchant! Thou was just a law's counsel? Be a country fellow!
Your conditions now changed, off with ye, go hence your ways! But what?
Why do ye stay?" They are unwilling, for they have the power to be happy.
What is its cause, but that a deservedly angry Jove should puff up                                   20
Both his cheeks and say that he shall never henceforth
Be so ready to deign to bend an ear of his to their prayers?
But, lest I run over a matter like this as if I were one to laugh at droll subjects --
Yet, what keeps a man who laughs from speaking the truth?
Just as sometimes teachers doth give bits of cake to their boys                                         25
So they are more willing to learn their primary lessons -- 
But yet, let's set the games aside and move on to weighty matters:
The man who turns the heavy earth with his hardy plow,
The knavish lawyer, the soldier and sailor, who rusheth
Dauntless through all the sea, would say that with purposeful intention                           30
They bear their toil, so that as old men they may retire in safe leisure
When they have set aside enough for themselves.
For here is an example: the little ant of great toil
Drags whatever he can in his mouth and adds to the heap
What he hath piled up, scarcely ignorant and dauntless of the future.                               35
As soon as Aquarius doth darken the changéd year

The ant never creeps abroad and the stores he sought beforehand

He wisely makes use of; while as for thee, neither boiling heat

Nor winter can deter from gain, nor fire, sea, or hardened iron,

Nothing stoppeth thee, provided no other man be richer!                                                  40
And what aid doth a vast weight of silver and gold give to thee
If thou dost bury it like a thief in upturned earth in thy fear that
If thou were to spend it, thou wouldst be left with the cheapest penny?

But if that not be the case, then what sort of beauty hath a storehold?
Though thy thrashing floor should yield a thousand, nay! a hundred thousand                45
Bushels of corn, thy belly shall not take on more than mine! Just as,
If thou shouldst chance to carry a basket of bread to sell on thy burdened
Shoulder, then thou wouldst receive no more of it than 
He who bore no part of it! Or tell me this: what doth it proffer a man,
Who within  Nature's bounds doth live, whether a hundred fields he ploweth                 50
Or a thousand? Ah, but thou saiest, "How sexy to withdraw from a large account!'
While thou wouldst leave us to take out as much from our meager stores,
Why dost thou praise thy granaries more than our grain baskets?