Horace: Three Imitations, No. 2
- By Robert Hass
Odes, 3.2 Angustam amice pauperiem pati
Let the young, toughened by a soldier’s training,
Learn to bear hardship gladly
And to terrify Parthian insurgents
From the turrets of their formidable tanks.
Also to walk so easily under desert skies
That the mother of some young Sunni
Will see a marine in the dusty streets
And turn to the daughter-in-law beside her
And say with a shudder: Pray God our boy
Doesn’t stir up that Roman animal
Whom a cruel rage for blood would drive
Straight to the middle of any slaughter.
It is sweet, and fit, to die for one’s country,
Especially since death doesn’t spare deserters
Or the young man without a warrior’s instincts
Who goes down with a bullet in his back.
Civic courage is a more complicated matter.
Of itself it shines out undefiled.
It neither lies its way into office, nor mistakes
The interests of Roman oil for Roman honor.
The kind of courage death can’t claim
Doesn’t go very far in politics.
If you are going to speak truth in public places
You may as well take wing from the earth.
Knowing when not to speak also has its virtue.
I wouldn’t sit under the same roof beams
With most of the explainers of wars on television
Or set sail on the same sleek ship.
They say the gods have been known
To punish the innocent along with the guilty
And nemesis often finds the ones it means,
With its limping gait, to track down.