"Diffugere Nives" by A E Housman (poetry reading)

This is a poet's poem, a small masterpiece. Housman thought that the original was the most beautiful poem in ancient literature: he put a lot of effort into this translation.
Diffugere Nives means "the snow's all gone". Here's a bio of Horace (65BC-8BC), who wrote the original:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_histromlit_2_2_3.htm
Even if you don't know much latin, you'll know a couple of bits by Horace - "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" and "carpe diem".

Here is the original in latin and a discussion of this translation other translations by famous poets:
http://www.merriampark.com/horcarm47.htm

Hippolytus was given a new identity by Diana under her witness-protection scheme and renamed Virbius.

Heracles saved Theseus after he and Pirithous had been chained to a rock by Hades. Theseus did his best to save his old chum Pirithous but he wasn't successful.

This poem was the favourite poem of the New York writer and editor of The New Yorker, William Maxwell (1908--2000) Here he is reading it and talking about it:
http://poemsoutloud.net/video/archive/diffugere_nives_by_a.e._housman/

The picture of "Quintus Horatius Flaccus" is by Anton von Werner (1843--1915)
who visualised what Horace might have looked like. Flaccus was a family nickname in the Roman traditiion and it might have meant flabby or floppy-eared.

The statue of Diana is in the Louvre. It looks like she lost her head until somebody glued it neatly back on.

The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws
And grasses in the mead renew their birth,
The river to the river-bed withdraws,
And altered is the fashion of the earth.

The Nymphs and Graces three put off their fear
And unapparelled in the woodland play.
The swift hour and the brief prime of the year
Say to the soul, Thou wast not born for aye.

Thaw follows frost; hard on the heel of spring
Treads summer sure to die, for hard on hers
Comes autumn with his apples scattering;
Then back to wintertide, when nothing stirs.

But oh, whate'er the sky-led seasons mar,
Moon upon moon rebuilds it with her beams;
Come we where Tullus and where Ancus are
And good Aeneas, we are dust and dreams.

Torquatus, if the gods in heaven shall add
The morrow to the day, what tongue has told?
Feast then thy heart, for what thy heart has had
The fingers of no heir will ever hold.

When thou descendest once the shades among,
The stern assize and equal judgment o'er,
Not thy long lineage nor thy golden tongue,
No, nor thy righteousness, shall friend thee more.

Night holds Hippolytus the pure of stain,
Diana steads him nothing, he must stay;
And Theseus leaves Pirithous in the chain
The love of comrades cannot take away.

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• Diffugere Nives
• Housman
• Horace
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[DaBlaade]

It's long ago that I knew, but isn't (the famous) carpe diem by Catullus?

The Housman is very beautiful, though. Thanks so much for reading it!

[SpokenVerse]

@DaBlaade "carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero." Seize the day, have little faith in the future" Horace, Ode 1.1:

[ThunderingJove]

A prefect poem, well read. The last four lines are so moving, I don't know why.

[biswasa69]

YOUR WONDERFUL VOICE DOES JUSTICE TO THIS LITTLE GEM OF A POEM. AM ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL READING

[Idlinfarm]

Thank you. You always extend my education in some way or other. I imagine your own enjoyment in reading poems you relish.