 Arspoetika by quintus oratius flakus, redforlibrivox.org by Leny. Humano kapiti ker weekend piktore quina, yungere si velit itwarias indukere plumas, undi que colatis membris utturpi teratrum tessinat in piskem mulier for mossa superne, spektatum admisi risum teneatis amiki, kredite pisonis isti tabulai for ellibrum per similem, cuyus velut aigri somni awanai, fingentur speciyes ut neg pez neg kapu tuni redatur formai. Piktoribus atque pohetis quidlib et audendi sem perfuit aiko potestas. Skimus et hanqueniam peti musque da musque wikisim, sed non ut plakidis coian imiti anonut serpentes awibus geminentur tigribus agni. Inkeptis grawibus flirumpet magna profesis purpureus, lathe quis plendeat undus et alter, azuitur panus, cum lukus et ara dianai, et properantis aqa e peramoenus sambitus agros, aud flumen renum aud tuius describitur arkus, sed non erat his locus, et fortaseku presum skisimulare quid hoxit fraktis enatat expes nawibus aeredatuk wi pingitur, amfora coipit, institui kur renterota kur urkeus exit, deni quesit quod wis simplex dumtaksat et unum. Maxima parswattum, pater et juwenes patredigni, deqipim ur speki erekti, brewis esse laboro, obskurus fio, sectantem lewia nerwi, defikiunt animikwe, profesus grandia turged, serpit humi tutus nimi yuntimidusque prokelai, qui wariare kupit renpro di giali teruna, delfinum silwis ad pingit fluktibus aprum. Inwitium dukit kupai fugasi karet arte, aimiliyum kir kalu dumfaber imus et ungwis exprimet et molis imitabitur aire capilos, infelix opelis summa, quia ponere totum neskier, hunk ego mesi quid komponere kure, nonmais essevelim quom naso wiwere pravo, spektandum nigris oculis nigroque capilo. Summite materiam westris, quis kribitis aiquam, wiiribus, et versate diu quid ferre rikusen, quid walejan tumeri, qui lekt apotentere ritres, neg facundia deseret hunk, neg lukkidus ordo. Ordenis hai quirtus erit et wenus aut ego falor, ut jam nuk dikat jam nuk de bentia diki, pleera quid diferat et praisens in tempus omitat, hunk amet hunk sfernat promisi karminis auktor. In werbis et iam tenuis kautus ques erendis dikseris e gregie, notum si kali da werbum re diderit yuntura nuwum. Si fortere kesest indikiis monstrarere kentibus abdita reret, fingere kink tutis non exaudita kethegis, continget dabitur queli kentie sumpta pudenter, et nou afik ta quenu per habebum dwerbafidemsi graiko fonte kadent parke de torta, quid autem kaikili o pautok quedabit romannus, ademtum wergili o warioque. Ego kur ad quirere pautka, si posum in wideor kon lingua katonis et eni sermonem patrium di ta werid et nou warerum nomina protu lerid, li quid sem per queli kebid signatum praisente nota produkere nomen. Utsilwai foliyis pronus mutantur in anus prima kadunt, ita werborum wetus interit aitas et yuenum riktu florent, modonata wi gentque. Debemur morti nos nostraque, si werekeptus, terra neptunus klases aquiloni bus arke, regis opus serilis wewdiu, palus aptaque remis wikinas urbes alit et grauesenti taratrum. Seu kursum mutaw et inikwom frugibus amnis, doktusi termelius mortali effacta peribunt, nedum sermonenstet honos et gratia wiwaks. Resge staireg nunque du kumque tristia bella, quos skribi posent numero monstrawit homerus, wersibus imparite yuntis queremonia primum, post et yam inkluses nuotis ententia kompos, quistamen exibus elegos emis serit auktor, gramatiki kertant et adhuk subi yudi ke lisest. Arquilokum proprio rabies armao et yambo. Hunksoki kepere pedem grandesque coturni, alternis aptum sermonibus et popularis, winkentem strepitus et natum rebus agendis. Musa dedit filibus diwos pueros quedeorum, et pugilem wiktor et ekum kertamen e primum, et yu enum kuras et liberawinna refere. Diskriptas seruare wikes operunque kolores, kur egosi nequeo ignoroque poeta salutor, kur neskire pudens prawe quam diskere malo, wersibus exponi tragikis reskomi kanonwult, indignatu ritem priwatis ag propresokko, dignis karminibus narrari ke na fiestai. Singula qua equilokum tenei an sortita dekentem. Interduntame net wokem komoidi atolit, ira tusque creme estumidu delitigat ore, et tragikus plerunque dolet sermoni pedestri. Telefus et peleus kum pauper et exuluterque, proikit ampullas et sesqui pedalia werba, sikurat korspektantis detigis se querella. Non satis espu kresse poematta, dulki asunto, et quokumque volent animum auditoris agunto. Ut ridentibus ad rident, it aflentibus asum, humani voltus. Si wis me flere doletn des, pri mi psitibi. Tunto ame infortunia laident, telefewer peleu. Male si mandat alo quereis, audormitaba ut ridemo. Ebo, tristia maistum, voltum werba de kent iratum plenaminarum, ludentem laski wasewerum seria diktu. Forma tenim natura prius non intus adomnem fortunarabitum. Juat aut impelitad iram, aut adumum mairore grawi dedukit et angit. Post efert animi motus interprete lingua. Si di kentis erumt fortunis absona diktta, romani tollent equites verites wekakinum. Intererit multum diwos nelo quaturan heros. Maturus nesenexan atuk florente juventa fèrwidus, et matrona potens ansedulla nutrix. Merkatorne wagus kultorne uirentis ageli, kolkus anasirius tebis nutritus anargis. Aut famam sequeraut sibi konwenienti afinge scriptor, honoratum si fortereponis achilem. Infinge ira kundus innexorabilis acher, Jura neghet sibi nata, nihil non aroghet armis. Sit mede a fèroks inwiktakwe, flèbilis innu. Perfidus ixsion, io waga tristis orestis. Si quid in ekspertum skainai komittis et audes, personnam formare nouam, serwetur adimum. Qualis abinkeptu prokessirit et sibi konstet? Difficilis propriae komunia dikeretukwe, rektius ilia kum karmen dedukis innaktus, quam si profères ignoti indiktakwe primus. Publikamateries priwati yuris eritsi, non kirkawilem patu lungwemorabilis orbe, neq werbo-werbum kurabis redere firus, interpres neq desili ixsibitator innartum, unde pedem profère pudor wetet aud operis legs. Nexik in kipies aud scriptor kiklikus olem, fortunam priami cantabe nobile belum, quid dig nun tanto fèret hik promis orhiatu, parturi entmontes nasketu ridikulus mus, quantor rektius hik, qui nil molituri nepte, diq mihimus awirum kaptae pos tempor atroiae, qui mores hominum multorum widit et urbis. Non fumum exfugore, sed exfumo dare lukem kogitat, ut speciosa dehink mirakul aproma, antifatemski lamket kumki kloppe kariptim. Neq reditum dio medis ab interitum meleagri, neq geminou belum trojanor ditur abouwo. Semper adewentum festinat et inn medias res non secus agnotas, auditorem rapid, et quai desper atraktata ni teskere posse relinkwik, adquitamentitur si queris falsa remisket, primu ne medium, medio ne discrepetimum. Tu quideget populus mequm desider et audi, si plosoris eges awlae yamanentis et usque, sesuri done kantor, wasplaudit et dikat. Aitattis quiusque notandii, suntibi mores, mobili busque de cor naturis dandus etanis, redere quii woques yamskit pueret pede kjerto, signat humum, gestit paribus kon lu de retiram, colligit akonite mere et mutattu din horas, inn berbus yueni standem custo de remoto, gaudet ekwis kanibusque tapriki gramin e kampi, kereus in vitium flekti, monitoribus asper, utiliyum tardus pro visor prodigus aeris, sublimis kupidusque tamata relinkwere pernix. Konversis tudiis aitas anibusque virillis, quairid opeset amikitias inservit honori, komisis e gawet quod moxmuttare laboret, multasenem kirkum weniyumd inkomoda welkod, quairid et inwentis miser abstine tatime tuti, welkod res omni stimide gelideque ministrat, dilator sfe longus, inners awidusque futuri, diffikili skwerolus laudator temporisakti, sfe puero castigator kensorque minorum, multaferunt ani weniyentis komod assekum, multare kedentis adimunt, nefortes enilis mandentu riwenipartes pueroque virillis, semperin adyuntis ay woquemorabitur aptis, aut agitur res in skainis aut acta refertur, segnius in ritant animus de misa peraurem, quam quaisunt oculis subyekta fidelibuset quai ipsesibi tradit sfektator, non tamen intus dignageri promes in skainam multa quetolis ex oculis quay moxnaret facundia prasens, nepuero skoram popolo medea trukidet, aut humana palam coquat eksta nefarius atreus, aut in awem prokne vertatur kadmus in angwem, quod cungo stendis mihisik incredulus odi, newe minor neusit quinto produkti oractu, fabula, quai poski wold etsfektanda reponi, nek deus intersit nisi dignus windi kenodus inciderit, ne quarta loquit persona laboret, aktoris partis korus o fiki yunque wo irile defendat, neu quid merios interkinat actus, quod non proposito condukat et haireat apte, ile bonis faweat quet consili etur amike, et regati iratos et amet pe karetimentis, ile dapes laudet mens aibrewis, ile salubrem, justitiam legges quet apertis otti aportis, ile tegat co missa deusque preketuret ored, utre reat misseris, aveat fortuna superbis, tibi anon utnung ori kalko winda tubaike aimula, settenuis impleksque foramine palko, adspiraret a desse horis erat utilisatque, nondum spisa nimi skompleres edili aflatu, quos ane popolus nun merabilisut poteparwos, et frugi castusque uere kondusque koibat, posquam coepitagros extendere wiktor et urbes, latior amplekti murus wino queri urno, plakari gerius festis impune diebus, aquesit numerisque modisque likentia mayor. ndoktus quidenim sapere tliberque laborum, rusticus urbano confusus turpis honesto, sik prisca emotunque luxuri emadi tirarti, tibi kentraksit quewagus perpulpita westem, sik etiam fidibus wokkes kreueres eweris, et tulit elokui insolitun facundia praikeps, utili unque sagaks reere di wina futuri, sor tilegis non dikskrepuit sententia delfis. Tarmine qui tragico willem kertawit obircum, moxetia gresti satiros nudawit et asper, incolumi gravitate yokum tentawit eo quod incelebris erat et grata novitate morandus, svektaktor funktus quesakris et potus et exlex, wedi tarrisores ita komendare li kakis, konweni et satiros ita wetere seri aludo, ne quicum quedeus quicum quadi bebit urheros, regali consvektus in auro nupererostro, migret in obskura sumili sermone tabernas, au dunguit atumum nubesetin nani acaptet, e futire lewis indignatragoi diaversus, ut festis matrona moveri yusadiebus, intererit satiris paulum pudibunda proterwis, non eginornate dominanti anomina solum, verbaque pisones satirorum scriptor amabo, nexik eni tar tragico di ferre kolori, utni il intersi dausne lo quattur et audax, pifias emungto lu kratta simone talentum, ancustus famullus quedeis silenus alumni, exnoto fictum karmen secuar, utsibi quwis sferetidem suddet multum frustrak quelabore, au susidem tantum series yuntura quepolet, tantum de medio sumtis acedit honoris, silwis dedukti kaueyant me yuddi ke fauni, ne velut i nati triwis ac paine forenses, aud nibi yunteneris yuenentur versibus unquam, aud in mund acepent, ignominio sacedita, ofen dun turenim quibus est eqose pate retres, nexii quid frikti kikeris probat et nukizemtur, aekwis a qipi yuntanimis donantwe corona. Sil la balonga brewis subyeqta wok kattur yambus, peskitus un detiam trimetris ad kreskere yusid, nomen yambeis, qumsenus reder et ictus, primus ad ekstremum similis sibi, non itapridem, tardior ut paolo grauior quewenir et adauris, spondeo stabilis in yudda paterna reqepit, komodus et patiens, non ut desede secunda, kederet, aud quarta socialiter, hik et in aki, no bilibus trimetris ad paolo, aekwis widet in modulata poemata yuddex, et data romanis weni est indigna poetis, id kirkone wager skribon, id kirkone wager skribon, id kirkone wager skribon, id kirkone wager skribon, id kirkone wager skribon, id kirkone wager skribon queli kenter, anomnis wisuros pe katapute me atutus el intra, spemwenia ekautus, wi tawi denikwe kulpam, non lau de merwi, wos exemplari agraika, nocturna versate manu, versate di urna, at westeri proawi plautinos et numeros et lau, nimi un patienteru trunque, ne dikam stulte, miratis imo de getus, skimus in urbanum lepidus sepon eredikto, legitimunque sonum digitis, kalemus et aure, ignotun tragika egenus inwenis se kamenai, dikiture claustris weksis se poemata fesfis, quai kanerent agerenque perunti faikibus ora, posthun personai pa laikwe repertor honestai, aiskilus et modikis instrauit pulpita tignis, et dokuit madnumque loquinitikwe koturno. Su ques situetus hisko moedia, non si ne multa lau de, sed inwitium libertas ekskiditetwe, dignam lege regi, leks est a keptakorusque, turpiter optikuit sublato jure no kendi. Nil intemtatu nostri li quere poetai, nek minimun meruere dekus vestigi agraika, ausi deserere kelebrare domestika fakta, welkwe prai tekstas welkwe dokuere togatas. Ne quirtute foret clariswe potentius armis, quam lingua latium si non ofenderet unum, quemque poetarum lima elaboret mora, wos o pompiliu sanguis, karmen reprehendite, quonon multa dies et multa litura coerkuit, wos o pompiliu sanguis, wos o pompiliu sanguis, atque prai tekstum dekiens non castigauit adungem. Ingenium misera, quia fortunatius arte, credit et ekskludit sannos helicone poetas, demokritus, bonapars non unguis ponnere curat, non barbam se kretapetit loka balneauitat. Nankis keturen impretium nommenque poetai, si tribus antikiris kapput insanabile nunquam tonso rilikino co miserit, o egolaivus, quipur gorbilem subvernit temporis hora. Non alius faqeret meliora poematah, werum niltantest, ergo niltantest, werum niltantest, ergo fungar wikekotis acutum, redere quai ferrum wallet eksors ipsa secandi, monus et o fikiu nilscribens ipsed o kebo, un de parentur opes quid allat formet co poetam, quid dekeat quid non quowirtus co ferat error. Scribendi rektes aperest et trinkipi et fonts, remtibis socraticai poeterum ostendere kartai, werbaque pro wisam rennon inwita secentur, quid dekeat patriae quid debeat et quid amikis, quostit amore parents, quow frater amandus et hospes, quod sit conscripti, quod judikis o fikiu, quai partes in bellumis idukis ille profecto, redere personnais kit conwenienti acuikwe. Respikere exemplar wita e morum que jubebo, dokti mitatore dvivas hintukere woques. Enterdum speciosa lokis morata querecte, fabula nulius weeneris sinepondere et arte, qualdius o blektat populum meliusque moratur, quam versus innope sreerum nugaikwe canorae. Grais ingenium, grais dedit orerotundu, musa loquii praiter laudem nulius awaris, romani pueri longis rakiu, dionibusassem, discum in partis kentum di dukere, dikat filius albini, si de quinkun kere motes, unkia quid superat. Poteras di sisetriens, eu rem poteris seruare tuam, redit unkia quid fit, semis, anhaik animus ayrug et cura peculi, semel imbuerit speramus karmina fingi, posseli nenda kedro et lewis eruandaku presso, aut prodesse wolunt aut de lektare poetai, aut simulet yukundet idone adikere wytai. Quid quid praikipies, esto brewis uttito dita, per kipiant animi dokiles tenejan quefidelis. Omne superuakun pleno de pektore manat, fiktawoluptatis causa asin proxima ueris, nekod kum quewolet poskat si bifabu lakredi, neupran sae lamiae wiwun puer ekstra hataluo. Kenturiae senior agitant ekspertia frugis, kelsi praitere und austera poemata ramnes, omnetulit puntun quid miskuit uttile dulki, lektorem de lektando pariterque monendo. Hik meret aera liber sosis, hik et mere transit et longun noto scriptori prorogat ayum. Sum delikta tammen quibus ignowis evelimus. Namne qu'ekorda sonum redi quem volt manuset mens, pos kentik qu'egrauen persaipi remitit akutum, neksem perferi et cod kum quem inabitur arkus. Qu'erubi plur anitent in karmine, non egopaukis ofendar makulis, quas aut in kuria fudit, aut humana parum kawit natura. Qu'dergest, ut scriptorsi pekat idem librarius usque, quam wis es monitus venia karet et kitaroidus, ridetur, korda qu'isempe robera teadem, sigmi hi qu'i multum kesat fit koirilus ile, quem wis ter qu'e bonum kum risomiror et idem, indignor qu'ando qu'e bonus dormitat homerus, qu'er operi longo fas est obreperi somnum. Ut pictura poesis, eri qu'ais si propius tes, te kapiat magis et qu'aidam si longius avstes, haik amat obscurum, valet haik su blukke wideri. Yodikis argutum qu'ai non formidat akumen, haik plakuit semel, haik de qu'iens repetita plakevit. O mai or juenum, qu'am wis et wokke paterna, fingeris adrectet per te sapis hoqtibi diktum, tolle memor kertis meri et tolerabile rebus, rekte kon kedi, konsultus judis et aktor, causarum mediocris abest virtute diserti, mesala enek skit quantum kaskelius aulus, set damen impreti est, mediocribus esse poetis, non homines non di non conkesere kolumnae, ut gratas intermensa simfonia dikskors, et krasum guentet sardo kum mele papauer, ofendunt, poteraduki qu'iacena sinistis, sik animis natum inuentum qu'e poema juandis, si paulum sumo dekesit vergita dimum. Ludere qu'i neskit campestribus abstilet armis, indoktus qu'e pilae diskiu e trokiu e quieskit, nesvis ae risum tollant impune koronae, qu'i neskit versus damen audet fingere, qu'i neskit versus damen audet fingere, quidni, liberet in genus fraisertim kensus equestrem, summam numorum witi o queremotus abomni, tu dihlinwita dikesfakiu e summinerua, id tibi ju diki est e amens, sik quid damen olin skripseris in maiki deskendat ju diki zauris, et patris et nostras, non nun qu'e prematurin anum, membranis intus positis, deleere li kevit qu'onon erideris, neskit woks visa reverti, sil vestris homines sake rintepresque leorum, caidibus et wiktu foidou de teruit orfeus, diktus obok lenir et igris rabidosque leonis, diktus et amfion, the banae conditur urbis, saksam ueres onot testudinis de preke blanda, dukere qu'a wellet, foid haiks apienti a kondam, publika priwatis e kernere sakra profanis, qu'on kubitu prohybere wago, darei yura maritis, opid amoliri, lege s'inkidere ligno, sik honoret nomen diwinis watibus aque, karmini buswenit, posthos insignis homerus, tirta yusque mare sanimus in martia bella, wersibus eksakuvit, diktai per karmina sortis, et wytai monstrata wiest, et gratia regum pieris temtata modis ludusque repertus, et longorum operum finis, neforte pudori, sintibi musa alirai solers et kantorapolo. Natura fieret laudabile karmina narte, quaisit est, egon nextudium sineddiwit ewena, nekru de quid prositwi deo ingerium, altera poskit opem res et coniura tamike, wistudet optatam cursu, contingere metam, multa tulit fe kikwe puer, sudawit et alsit, avstinuwit we nere dwinu, quipitia kantat, tibiken didikit prius ekstimuwit ke magistrum, nunksatis est diksisse, egomira poema tapango, okupet ekstremum skabiyes, mihi turpere lingwest, et quod non didiki, sanne neskire fateri, ud praikad merke esturbam, quik cogit emendas, at sentatores yubet ad lucrire poeta, diwes agris, diwes positis infenore numis, siwere est unktum quirecte ponere posit, etspondere lewi pro pao pereteri peratris, litibus implikitum, miraborsiski et inter, noskere mendake mwerun quibiatus amikum, tu seu donaris, seu quidonare woleskui, nollitod adwersus tibifactos dukere plenum laititiae, clamabitenim, puqre benerecte, palesket superhis, ettiams ti labit amikis, eks okulis rorem saliet, tun dedpedeterram, quikondukti plorant infunere dikunt, et faciunt propeplura dolentibus exanimo, sik derisor wero plus laudatorem wetur, reges di kuntur multis urgeere kulilis, ettor queremero quem perpeksis se laborent, ansit amikiti adignus, si karmina kondes, nun quamte falent animis subuol pelatentis, quintili o sik quid reqitares, korige sodes, hok ayebat et hok melius te posse negares, bister qu ekspertum frustra, delere yubeba, et male tornatos incudi redere wersus, si defendere deliktum quam wertere males, nun lultra werba o toperinsume batinane, quinsineri wali te quet tu asolus amares, wyrbonus et prudens wersus reprehendet innertis, kulpabit duros, incontis adlinetatrum, transworso kalamos signa ambitiosa reqidet, orna menta par un klaris lukem darekoget, argoet ambigue diktum mutanda notabit, fiet aris tarcus, nek diket, kureg amicum offendin nugis, hain nuga i seriai dukent, in mala derisum semel ekspertum quesinistre. Ut mala quem skabi es aut morbus regius urget, aut fanaticus erore di irakunda diana, quesanum tetigis setiment fugiunt quepoetam, quisapiunt, agitant puerin kaotikwese cuntur, hik dun su blimis wersus ruktaturet errat, si weluti merulis in tentus dekidit aukeps, in pute un foe am weli ket su kurit elongum, gamet yo kii wes non sit quitolere kuret, si kuret quis opem feret de mitere fune, quis kis anprudens hukse de ikerit aque seruari nolit, dikam si kulikwepoetai narabo interitum, deus in mortalis haberi dun kupitem pedokles ar dentem frigidus aetnam, insilwit, si dius likiat queperire poetis, inwitum quis seruar id enfakit okidenti, nexemel huk fekit nexi retratus eritiam, fii et homo et ponet famosa i mortis amorem, nexatis aparet kur wersus faktit et utrum, minxerit in patrius kineres an trist evidental, mowerit in kestus kerte furit aque ut ursus, obiektus kauea iwalwit si frangere klatros, indoktum doktum quefugat rekitatora kerbus, quem werari pui tenet okidit quelegendo, non misura kutem misi plena kruori sirudo. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The art of poetry, part one, by Quintus Oratius Flacus, translated by Mason and Watt, read for LibriVox.org by Lenny. Should a painter take upon him to join a horse's neck onto a human head and to add plumage of diverse collars, limbs from every kind of animal so that Watt in its upper parts was a fair woman, ended in a foully hideous fish, would you, when admitted as a friend to a private view, be able to contain your laughter? Believe me, pieceus, very like that picture will a book be wherein conceptions are imagined false as a sick man's dreams, wherein neither head nor foot can be referred to a single type. But painters and poets alike have always been allowed any license they choose. We know it, and we mutually give and take the privilege, in the condition that there are no matches made between wild and tame, no pairing of birds with serpents or of lambs with tigers. Often to openings in the grand style that promise much are tacked on one or two brilliant patches to add a far-seen lustre, and when the grove and altar of Diana, the meandering of the water as it hurries through the pleasant meadows, the river Rhine, or the rainbow is described, but this was not the place for them. Perhaps you know how to paint a cypress, but what's the use if the man who has paid for his portrait is swimming away in the spare after a shipwreck? It was a jar that was begun. Why, as the wheel runs, is the outcome aeewer? And fine, let it be what you please, provided it is one thing natural. We poets, for the most part, father and young man worthy of your father, are the victims of our own ideals. I labor to be short and become obscure. While I pursue smoothness, my work lacks vigor and spirits. The poet who aims at sublimity becomes bombastic, while he who is too cautious and too fearful of the storm crawls on the ground. The painter who desires to vary unnaturally a single subject puts a dolphin in the woods, a boar amid the waves. Thus the shunning of one fault, if it lacks skill, leads to another. The humblest craftsmen about the Emelian school can copy fingernails and imitate flowing hair and bronze, yet miss success in his work at large because he cannot represent a whole. If I cared to write, I would not be he. Any more than I would go through life with an ugly nose while my black eyes and black hair commended at my waist. You who write, take a theme suited to your strength and ponder long what burden your shoulders will not bear and what they can. The man who chooses his subject with self-restrain, him neither eloquence nor clear arrangement will forsake. The virtue and the beauty of arrangement, or I am much mistaken, will prove to lie in this, to say at the very moment that I am the one who chooses the subject with self-restrain. He also who takes upon himself to promise a poem nice and cautious in the connecting of his words should hold to one and reject another. Your style will have distinction if a skillful setting makes a well-known word new. If for chance it is needful by fresh signs or if it is not, it is not. Your style will have distinction if a skillful setting makes a well-known word new. If for chance it is needful by fresh signs or if it is not, it is. Surely, chopping and insider lines will explain things before a known helpful word will be your fortune to invent words which the sur 67 сithègie, with his loin-clothes never heard and your freedom will be allowed in modestly if assumed. Your fresh and newly-made words too will pass current,, if they come but sparingly drawn off from a Greek source. For what will the romans grant to Cecillius and Plotus and refuse toodor Voc warrant various? me, when the language of Katoan of anyus enriched their country's speech, and brought in new names for new things. It has been allowed, and will forever be allowed, to utter a coin that bears the stamp of present use. As the woods change their leaves, each swiftly moving year, and the first fall, so the older generation of words dies out, and, like young men, the newly born are fresh and strong. Death claims us, and all that is ours. Whether it be that, received within the land, naturem protects fleets from the north wind, a kingly work, or a marsh long barren, fit only for the oar, feeds neighboring cities, and fills the weight of the plow, or if a stream has changed the course that harmed the crops, learning a better way, yet human works will perish, far less will the respect and popularity of speech be lasting. Many words already dead will find a second birth. Many will die that now are held in honor, if custom, in whose hands rests the power, the law, the rule, that governs speaking, so will determine. It was Hummer who showed in what measured the prowess of kings and leaders, and stern wars could be described. In pairs of verses of an equal length, first sorrow, then the feeling of granted prayers was contained. But as to who invented and sent forth upon the world slight alleges, professors disagree, and the issue is still before the court. Arkyllicas was armed by his fury with the ayambas of his own finding. Then Kamik's sock and stately busking took up the foot, well suited as it was for dialogue, able to rise above the noise of the audience and born for action. The muse granted to the liar to celebrate gods and their sons, the conquering boxer and the horse first in the race, the passions of youth and careless whine. But if I lack the power or the knowledge to keep to the accepted types and tones of poetic works, why am I hailed poet? Why do I, with false modesty, choose rather to be ignorant than to learn? A Kamik theme will not endure to be set forth in tragic verse, and Faiesti's banquet is outraged if it be told in the everyday strains that are almost worthy of the sock. Let each kind keep to its appointed and becoming place. Yet sometimes even comedy uplifts her voice, and angry creams declaims with swelling uterins. And often tragic characters bewail themselves in homely speech, as when telephas and pelillas, baggers and exiles both, cast away their pain-pots and their words a foot and a half long, if the object of their plane is to touch the heart of the spectator. But it's not enough for poems to be beautiful. They must be pleasing, and draw the spirit of the beholder with their so-ever they will. As faces that are human laugh with those who laugh, so they weep with those who weep. If you would have me weep, first you must grieve yourself. Then your misfortunes will pain me, telephas or pelillas. But if your words are ill-suited to your part, I shall doze or laugh. Sad words become a mournful character. Between words and angry, sportive, a playful, grave, a stern. For nature first molds us within according to every state of our fortunes. She makes us feel delight, or provokes us to wrath, or bows us to the earth beneath a weight of sorrow, and rings our hearts. It is only afterwards that she brings feeling to light by the interpretation of the tongue. If the words are out of tune with the fortunes of him who speaks them, the Romans horse and foot will raise a laugh. To make all the difference whether a god or a hero is talking, an old man of ripe age, or one that is fiery, and still in the flower of his youth, the respected mistress of a household or a careful nurse, a wandering merchant or a tiller of green fields, colkin or a Syrian, one that was reared in argos or in thieves. No tradition when you write, or invent consistent characters. If once more you should by chance present illustrious Achilles, let him be active, swift to wrath, implacable and fierce, let him deny that the laws were made for him, and claim all things for the sword. Let Medea be proud and unbending, you know, tearful, exean, treacherous, aio, a wanderer, orrestous, gloomy. If you put upon the stage something not tried before, and have the courage to create a new character, let him be kept to the end just what he was when he first came on, and be consistent. It is hard to endow common places with the speaker's personality, and you would do better merely to divide the Iliad into acts than he first to produce unknown and untold incidents. The subject which is common property will be your personal possession if you do not remain the cheap and easy round, and are not anxious, faithfully interpreting, to render word by word, nor in your imitation leap into a narrow place when shame, or the conditions of your work, would forbid you to come forth. Nor will you begin, as once did a cyclic poet, of Priam's fortune will I sing in the famous war. What could this man of promises produce worthy of such mouthing? The mountains will be in labor, and the birth a miserable mouse. How far more rightly he, in all whose undertakings there is judgment. Tell me, muse of the hero, who, after the day of Troy's fall, beheld the menors and cities of many men. His plan is not to let his brilliance end in smoke, but from smoke to give light, that one by one he may call forth his striking wonders, antipathies and silla, the cyclops and caribdas. Nor does he begin the story of Diomedes' return at the death of Miliagar, nor the Troyan war at the double egg. Always he hastens to the issue, and hurries the hearer into the midst of events, as though they were known, and what he cannot hope to make brilliant by his handling he passes by. Moreover, he lies in such a fashion, and so makes his faults with true, that the middle is not at variance with the beginning, nor the end with the middle. As for you, hear what I and the people with me look for, if you wish for applauding spectators who will wait for the curtain and sit till the singer says now clap. You must take note of the habits of every age, and assign to changeable and ripe ears their fitting character. The boy who has learned to answer, and sets a firm step on the ground, is eager to play with his fellows, and easily gathers and lays aside his anger, and changes from hour to hour. The beardless youth, his guarding at last removed, finds pleasure in horses and dogs and the grass of the sunny plain, walks to be molded to wrongdoing, rude to his advisors, slow to secure his true interests, lavish of his money, enthusiastic, passionate, and swift to abandon what he loves. With changed pursuits, the age and spirit of the man seeks wealth and friendships, and is the slave of office. He fears to make the mistake which soon he may labor to undo. Many are the evils which surround an old man, either because he seeks yet to his sorrow fears to grasp and use what he has found, or because he manages all affairs fearfully and codely, a procrastinator with far-reaching hopes, inactive, eager for the days to come, cross-grained, and careless, one that praises the world as it went when he was a boy, and chides and criticizes younger men. Many pleasures the ears bring with them as they come, many as they go, they take away. Last you should give an old man's part to a young, or a men's part to a boy. Know that we shall always dwell with pleasure on that which aptly fits each time of life. End of the Art of Poetry, part one. This recording is in the public domain. The Art of Poetry, part two. By Quintu Sorathius Flacus. Translated by Maison and Watt. Read for LibriVox.org by Lenny. Either the story is enacted upon the stage, or actions are reported. What enters by the ears stirs the feelings less deeply than that which is submitted to the faithful witness of the eyes, where the spectator is his own messenger. Nonetheless, we will not bring upon the stage what should be done within, and we will hide much from view, that in due course it may be told by the eloquence of an eyewitness. Let not Medea butcher her children before the world, or impious atrias openly cook human flesh, or prokny turn into a bird, or cadmus into a snake. Whatever of the sky you show me, unconvinced, I hate. The play which hopes to be called for and once more brought to view upon the stage must not fall short of the fifth act, nor reach beyond it. Let no god intervene, unless there be a not fit for a god to untie, and let no fourth character labour to speak. The chorus should take a share in the action, in a male part, and should sing no interludes between the acts that do not further the plot and fit it closely. It should support and give friendly counsel to the good, control the passionate, and love those who fear to sin. Let it praise the banquet of a frugal table, helpful justice, the laws, and peace with open gates. Let it keep secrets, and pray and implore the gods that fortune may return to the unhappy, and forsake the proud. Once the flute, not as now, bound with copper and challenging the trumpet, but low voice, and of simple form and small opening, serve to breathe harmony and support the choric song, and with its note to fill the theatre, as yet not too crowded. Dider assembled a people that could well be numbered, for it was small, and it was sparing, pure, and modest. But when that people began by conquest to extend its territory, with its widening walls to embrace cities, when, without rebuke on a holiday, men comforted their souls by drinking by daylight, rhythm and harmony gained a greater freedom, too. For, untaught and making holiday, what should they know of taste, countrymen and citizens mingled together, high and low? So it came that the flute player added motion and wantoness to his former art, and trailed his robe as he roamed the stage. So too the sternor liar gained notes, and headlong eloquence produced unwanted speech, and its utterances wise to discern what was expedient, and guess the future, differed not from those of a regular Delphi. The man who in tragic song contended for the poor prize of a he-goat, soon too brought naked set-hires on the stage, and roughly tried his hand at jest, leaving dignity unharmed. For, by the vices and pleasing novelty, he had to hold a spectator, who had performed his sacrifice, and drunk, and was unbound by law. But while you strived to win approval for your laughter and with his set-hires, and mingle mirth and earnest, still it will not do that any god or any hero whom you call in, one who was but now seen in royal purple and gold, should, in his homely speech, adopt the tone of un-cowth taverns, or, while his strives to shun the ground, strain cloud-high after windy language, tragedy that scorns to chatter frivolous lines like a matron who is bitten to dance upon a holiday, will be modest and mingle but little with wanton set-hires. It will not be mine, pisos, when I write set-hire plays, to cling to plain names and common words alone, nor will I strive to be so far removed from the tone of tragedy that it will make no matter whether it be Davis who speaks, and both Pythias enriched by the talent of which she swindled cement, or Silenus, the guardian and servant of the god, his nursing. I will strive after language composed of well-known words, such that anyone might hope for himself to attain, and should sweat much and toil in vain when he attempted it. Such is the power of order and context, so great the dignity that can be added to common words. If I were judge, the fawns that are summoned from the forest should have a care that they never, as though born in the alleys and almost denizens of the forum, trifled in two dainty verse, or shouted obscene and scurrilous words. For those who possess a horse, a father, and a competence, take offense, nor even if the buyer of roast peas and nuts is inclined to approve, though they receive it favorably or crown the author. A long syllable added to a short is called an iambus, a rapid foot, and from its swiftness it be the name trimeters attached itself to iambic lines, although the line had six beats, and from the first foot to the last was still the same. Not so long since, that it might strike the ear with something more of slowness and weight, being of a kindly and patient nature, it welcomed the steady spondias into its ancestral realm, but still it would not yield to them as equals the second or the fourth foot. The iambus appears but rarely in the much-praised trimeters of and any of its verses, launched with mighty weight upon the theatre, labor under the degrading charge of too rapid and careless work or of an ignorance of art. It is not every critic that can detect bad metering verse, and an undeserved license has been granted to Roman poets. But for that, am I to break bounds and write loosely? Or shall I think and that all will see my faults be on the safe side and keep within the limits wherein I may hope for pardon? If I do so, I have escaped blame, but not earned praise. But do you, night and day, turn the leaves of your Greek models? You say your grandfathers praise the meter in the width of plotters. Their admiration of both was too forebearing, not to say foolish, if only you and I can distinguish a provincial joke from true width, and can by the fingers and the ear detect the proper rhythm. Phaspas is sad to have discovered the form of tragic poetry, till then unknown, and to have carried in wagons his place for men to sing and act, their faces smeared with wine leaves. Next, Asculas, inventor of the mask and stately robe, built up the stage with narrow planks and taught his actors to speak loud and stalk upon their buskin. After them came the old comedy and won high praise, but freedom turned to license and to violence that needed to be checked by law. The law was passed, and its right to injure gone, the chorus grew silent to its own disgrace. Our poets have left not untried, nor did they earn their smallest praise when such as wrote tragedies in comedies in Roman dress there to leave the footmarks of the Greeks and tell of native life. And Lachium had been no less famous for her literature than for her courage and illustrious arms, had not the labor of the file and expenditure of time been distasteful to all these poets. But do you, offspring of Pompilius, condemn any poem that many a day and many an erasure has not pruned and chastened ten times till the paired nail detects no roughness? Because democratis believes that genius is a better gift of fortune than humble art, and shuts out from helican such poets as are sane, no small number of them are not at the pains to cut their nails or beards, seek hidden spots and shun the baths. For you may win the reward and title of a poet, if you never put into the hands of Lysinus, the barber, the head that three antiseras could not heal. Full that I am, I purge myself of color when spring comes on, where not so, no man had been a better poet, but no matter. Let me then serve as a wedstone, which, though it have no part or log in cutting, can still make steel sharp. Though writing not myself, I will teach the function and duty of a writer, whence he gets his supplies, what feeds and shapes him, what he should do and what not, with their excellence and with their error leads. Of writing, the beginning and source is sound knowledge, and the subject, the socratic leaves, will show you. That provided for, the words will readily follow. He who has learned what is owing to country and friends, with what love a parent, with what love a friend or brother is to be loved, what is the duty of a senator, what of a judge, and what the part of a leader sent upon campaign, it is just he who knows how to bestow the fitting attributes on every character. I would bid my learned imitator, look to the model given by life and manners, and thence draw living utterances. Often a play with striking general truths and characters well drawn, though it possess no beauty and be without weighty or artistic language, pleases the audience and holds them better than verses which lack subject or than melodious trifles. To the Greeks the muse gave genius and rounded utterance, for they cared for not but glory. The youth of Rome learned by long reckonings to divide the ace into a hundred parts. Answer, albinus's son, take away one twelfth from five twelfths and what is over? You might have entered by now, a third. Well done, you'll be able to keep your property. Add a twelfth and what's the answer? A half. When this rust and care for money has once infected the mind, do we hope that poems can be written which are worthy to be smeared with setter oil or capped in polished cypress? Poets seek either to profit or to delight, or to say what shall be pleasing and at the same time helpful in our lives. Whatever counsel you give, be short, that what is quickly said the mind may quickly catch and learn and retain faithfully. No mere verbiage will stay in the burden memory. That which is devised for entertainment's sake must be as near as may be to the truth. The story must not demand that whatever it likes be believed or bring forth a life-child from the maw of gorged lamya. The centuries of seniors will cast aside poems that serve no useful end. The rumnus will hotly pass by those that are severe. But every vote is carried by the man who mingles pleasure and profit by delighting the reader and teaching too. This is the book that will make money for the sosiae. This is the book that will cross the sea and make its author known, winning for him long life. But there are faults we could wish to pardon, for the string gives not ever the note that hand and thought require. But often when the player asks for a low note, answers with a high, nor always will the bow strike all that it threatens. But where much in a poem is bright, I am not want to take offence at the few spots which want of care scattered on the work, or human frailty overlooked. Where then lies the point? As a copyist, if he still makes the same mistake, the warn is not excused, as a harpist, who always goes wrong on the same string, becomes a laughing stock. So with me a writer who is often out becomes like whoreless, at home, if once or twice he reaches excellence, I wonder with a smile. Yet I am angry too when noble homer nods, but in so long a work it was but right that slumber should steal upon him. As in painting so in poetry, one work will take your fancy if you stand close to it, another if you stand far off. This loves dimness, and that would be seen in the light, and does not shrink from the critic's keen judgment. This please does only once. That, seen ten times over, will please. O elder of the youths, although by a father's voice you are molded to wisdom, and have judgment of your own, take to yourself the same, and remember that, in certain things, that which is middling and will pass is rightly tolerated. A middling attorney or barrister is far below the excellence of eloquent Missala, and does not know as much as all those Casselius, and yet he is esteemed, but that poet should be middling, is tolerated neither by men nor by gods, nor by shop windows. As at a pleasant banquet, the scordant music, or thick ointment, or poppy seed with sardinian honey, is in offense, because the dinner could have dispensed with them, so poetry that was born and devised to please, if it fall but little short of the best, comes near the worst. He who cannot play lets alone the weapons of the training ground, and on skill to use the ball or the disc or the hoop keeps quiet, lest the encircling crowd raise a laugh, and he have not to say. Yet the men who knows nothing of verses still dares to write them. Why not? He is free born and a gentleman. Nay, he is rated as owning a knight's property and has every virtue. But you will never do or say art against men nervous wish, such is your judgment, such your purpose. Still, if you ever write a work, let it come before the critical ear of Myseus, before your fathers and mine. Let it be kept back nine years, departement laid aside. Unpublished works can be destroyed. The word once uttered can never be recalled. Woodland men were turned from slaughter and from savage foot by Holy Orpheus, the prophet of heaven, and therefore he is said to have charmed tigers and raging lions. It is said too that Amphian, the founder of the Theban city, moved rocks by the sound of his flute, and by his sweet appeal led them wither he would. Herein once was wisdom, to distinguish what was the states and what the citizens, what's sacred and what's profane, to check promiscuous intercourse and give right to husbands, to found cities and inscribe laws upon wood. Thus reverence and fame were the reward of heavenly seers and song. After their days Homer won fame, and tortayas by his verse wedded heroic souls for martial wars. Oracles were given in song and the way of life made plain. Men strove by Pairian music to win the favor of kings and found out festivals to be the end of long labors, lest you feel shame for the muse skilled in the liar and Apollo the god of song. It has been asked if a noble poem is made by nature or art. For my part, I cannot see what prophet there is in study without a rich vein of genius or ingenious untrained. So much does the one require the other's aid and so friendly is their conspiracy. He who would fame reach the hoped for goal has done and suffered much in boyhood, has sweated and felt cold, has kept himself from love and wine. The flute player who plays at the pithian games has first learned his art and dreaded a master. Today it is enough to say, I can pose marvelous poems, devil take the hint most, for me it is a shame if I am left behind and if I admit that I know frankly nothing of what I never learned. Like an auctioneer who gathers a crowd to buy his goods, a poet who is rich in lands and rich in money put out at interest, bids flatterers come for gain. Moreover, if he is one who knows well how to set on a dainty meal and can go bail for the poor man who has no credit and rescue one who is entangled in the fatal meshes of litigation, I shall be surprised if fortunate as he is, he can distinguish a liar from a true friend. If you have made a present or wish to make one to any man, do not, when he is in the fullness of his joy, bring him to hear the verses you have made, for he will cry beautiful, good, right. He will grow pale at some, nay more, he will let fall the dew from sympathetic eyes, he will dance and beat the ground with his foot. As hired mourners at a funeral do and say almost more than those who grieve from their hearts, the flatterer is more moved than a sincere admirer. Kings, te said, are want to ply with many cups and rack with wine the man who's worthiness to be a friend they labor to test. If you build poems, you will never be deceived by the spirit that lurks in the fox. If you ever read a poem to Quintilius, he would say, I will have you man this and this. If you asserted you could do no better and had tried twice or three times in vain, he would bid you destroy the ill-turned lines or send them back to the anvil. If you chose rather to defend than to change a fault, not another word, nor further useless pains would he bestow to save you from becoming the lover of yourself and your one works alone and without a rival. A man who is sincere and wise will condemn rec lines and blame harsh, and with a cross stroke of his pen will set a black mark against such as our inartistic, pretentious ornament. He will cut out and will force obscure verses to give light, convict a double meaning, and note what must be changed. He will be an aristarchus and will not say, why should I quarrel with a friend about trifles? These trifles lead to grave ills when once a writer has been fooled and treated insincerely. Wise men fear to touch a frenzied poet, and shun him as they do a man afflicted by the past of scurvy or the royal disease by frantic delusion or Diana's wrath, while boys tease him and rashly follow him. Shoot such a one while belching forth verses head in air and strain about, fall like a bird catcher intent on black birds into a well or pit, he might shout aloud, help fellow citizens, but there will be none who care to pull him out. If any care to bring him aid and let down a rope, how do you know I should say, whether he did not throw himself down here on purpose and does not want to be saved, and I shall tell of the death of the Sicilian poet, in his desire to be thought an immortal god, empedically in cold blood lept into burning ethna. Let poets have the right and be allowed to perish. To save a man against his will is the same as to kill him. It is not the first time he has done this, and if he is dragged back will not now become a sane man and put aside his desire for a distinguished death. Nor is there reason apparent why he keeps making verses, whether he defiled his father's ashes or godlessly touched an ill-owned spot blessed by lightning, to certain he is infuriated, and like a bear that has managed to burst the confining bars of its cage, his catters learned and unlearned alike with his unsufferable recitations. The man he seizes he holds and murders by his reading, a leech that will not let go the skin to his full of blood. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Art of Poetry by Quintus Oratius Flacus translated by Andrew Wood read for LibriVox.org by Leni. Part 1 The Art of Poetry to the Peasles If to a human head a painter choose to join a horse's neck and then should use limbs from all quarters gathered, them invest with varied plumage drawn from many a nest, so that above a lovely maid he'd show, but ending in a hideous fish below, could you, my friends, from ridicule refrain, when call to view a thing so strange, so vain? In such a work, Peasles, to me it seems, a book of fancies wrought like Sigmund's dreams resembles greatly, for from first to last not in one mold the thoughts and words are cast. Painters, you say, and poets for their task have had such license fair as they may ask. Such license is legitimate, we know. In turn we seek and give it, but not so, that mild and cruel may stand at a tad, that snakes with birds, tigers with lambs may mate. To pompous introductions even such as seem to us at first to promise much oft here and there there's tack some purple patch, which by its luster bright the eye may catch. When dines grow of an altar they portray, and the meandering streams as on their way through pleasant fields they rush the river rine, the watch rebow, they're out of place, though fine. I, while a cypress can depict, say you, but what of that if you've to paint a view for a price paid, where a man hopelessly swims from a wreck a thward, a stormy sea? Why should we what a jar have been designed as the wheel turns a sorry picture fine? But, in a word, what are your subject be? Let it have oneness and simplicity. O sire, sons worthy of that sire, believe, appearances of right most bards deceive. If brevity I labor to secure, then this results, my lines become obscure. In striving after smoothness it may be, I fail in spirit and in energy. Say that my lines in lofty strain I cast, the chances are I'm landed in bombast. He, who over cautious dreads the tempest sound, is apt to crouch and creep along the ground. He, who one theme would very monstrously dolphins in woods depict, boars in the sea. But from a fall to fly through one of skill may happily lead to error greater still. An artist near the amelian school, who lives, install unique to nails expression gives. Well, too soft hair in bronze he'll imitate. Yet, in the end, to an unhappy fate, his work may come because proportion meet, he fails to give, nor makes the whole complete. Then be like such a one, should I compose, I'd rather be distinguished by a nose which draws attention by its ugliness, while fine black eyes and hair I might possess. That you should choose a subject, you, who write, that suited to your strength is proper quite. Write, too, that you should ponder long with hair what your powers can and what they cannot bear. Him, who has chosen what his strength avails, nor eloquence nor lucid order fails. Unless I greatly err and speak amiss, the beauty and the worth of orders this, that it will say just now, without delay, exactly what just now it ought to say, that many things tool to defer a thing fit, and for the present many things omit. That of a promised work the author will this part prefer, and that reject with skill. Nice, too, and cautious in the words you use. Well, you'll succeed if you should introduce by skillful combination some new phrase which may from henceforth take a noted place. If happily to describe it needful be, subjects obstrues by words coined recently, these words to fashion were compelled I own, which to high-gird sethaji were unknown, and license will be given as needs occasion, but license it must be in moderation. New words and words but recently contrived will credit half if they should be derived from a Greek root with small degree of change, what truly shall a Roman grant arranged to plotters and Sicilius, which in vain virtual invarious may hope to gain, shall there be grudge to me a boon not great, if I a few new phrases can create, since any as in Caddo's conversation enrich the language of the Roman nation and new words introduced, none will refuse, nor have refused words sealed by present use. As in the woods with each decline in year the old leaves fall those first which first appear, so likewise words grown old decay and die, while new born words like youth bloom vigorously, ourselves and all we have for death are cast, whether the port which from the north winds blast our fleet protects, a royal work, or what was once not, but a sterile marshy flat on which in boats one then might grow, which now fits neighboring towns and bears the heavy plow, or Tybur wants to crops with mischief fraught, but which a better chorus has now been taught, if these and all the works of man must wane, say shall the force and grace of words remain, but many words which now are obsolete may yet revive, and some which now we treat with honor shall go down, if custom will, custom the judge law rule of language still. Twas Homer first who taught us in what verse said wars, kings, leaders actions to rehearse, alternate lines for plaintive moods devised, joyful emotions after words comprised, but who first use short elegex strains, grammarians fight, a mood point it remains. Twas with his own iambics Roth supplied archilicus that measure has been tried, both by our comic writers and by those who court the tragic muse, that foot they chose, because their dialogue it suited well, as calculated to the noise to quell of an excited audience and as prone the action of the stage to hurry on. The gods there offspring the heroic race, the athlete who has gained the victor's place, the winning horse the youthful lover's size, of rosy wine the jovial draughts likewise, all these to celebrate the tuneful nine, the grateful duty to the liar assigned. Why am I greeted as a poet now, if I'm unable, if I know not how, with change marked of style and coloring, the varied themes of poetry to sing? Why should I choose, led by false modesty, rather than learn, still ignorant to be? A comic subject loads a tragic strain, the banquet of aiestes will disdain, familiar phrases which deep feeling mock, and which are worthy only of the sock. Then let each kind of verse its proper place assume, and hold it with becoming grace. Yet comedy sometimes her tonal race, and angry creams rails in swelling phrase, the tragic telephas and paleo's moan, oft in prosaic style, when they alone, poor and in exiles stand, away they cast, sesquipedalian words full of bombast, if the spectators' hearts to touch they care, while sad complaints before them they lay bare. Mere beauty in a poem once suffice, it must affect the feelings and entice, the minds of those who listen to proceed, whither soever it may onwards lead. As those who laugh to those who laugh respond, so between weeping mortals there's a bond. If you would have me weep, you must first grieve, then sympathy your sorrow will receive. Paleo's and telephas, without dispute, I'll sleep or laugh at words that do not suit. Sad words to sad looks are appropriate, words full of threats become the passionate, the civius talk while suits the wanton leer, and serious words accord with a severe. Nature at first to fortune's varied path adapts our minds, she goes as on to wrath, makes us rejoice, or causes us to frown, when she with pain and sorrow weigh us down, but after for the mind's emotions strong, she makes us find expression through the tongue. If a man's talk accords not with his station, both knights and mob for laughter find occasion, a difference great there will be then per force, whether a hero or a god the scores, the man who to his ears ripe judgment owes, or he in whose young veins the hot blood flows, the nurse officious or the matchon stayed, the merchant who long voyages has made, or he who till's the ground, the colquian, the orgy, the feben, or a syrian. Follow tradition's lead, or be content, persons consistent with themselves to invent. If of renowned Achilles you would tell, let him be active and implacable, let him be wrathful and impetuously, that laws were made for him with oaths deny. And to his arms all married irrigate, Medea should be fierce, unbent by fate. Aixian treacherous, I know lacrimals, I owe a waive, oristus crushed with woes. If to the stage a theme has yet enthried, you venture to commit, if you decide, a character that's new to broach, be sure that to the last that character endure, as from the first it started, and shall be borne with itself throughout consistently. It is difficult to treat a common theme, so that one's own it properly may seem. Suppose the Iliad you should dramatize, you'd on a course adventure much more wise, than should you be the first to make your own, subjects as yet unsung, as yet unknown. But public themes private by right you make, if no slow course of common place you take, if slavish rendering word by word you shun, not as an imitator head long run, into a straight from whencer modesty, or laws of verse forbid you to get free. Don't like the cyclic bard of old begin, I'll sing of Priam's fate and Ward's loud den, what yields the bolster who thus blows his horn, the mountain's labor and a mouse is borne. More rightly acts the bard who not assays, in such unskillful fashion when he says. Sing news, the man who after Troy's dire fate, the habit swatched in towns of many a state. With him no smoke succeeds to flesh as bright, but out of smoke he aims at causing light. That he his striking marvels forth may bring, such as in tipithes, the giant king, Scylla, Charybdis and the Cyclops why, nor Diomedes return does he indict, starting from Iliagr's death, nor date from the twin eggs, the Troyan war so great. His hastening ever to the denouement, into the middle of events along, his auditors he hurries as if they, were well acquainted with them here that day. Things which poetic treatment is not fit to render striking these he will omit. And so he molds his fiction, and so blends what's false with what is true, to suit his ends, that twix beginning, middle, and may be, observed no traces of discrepancy. What I and what the people wish now here, if you admire's fame would have since here, who will sit on until the curtains rise, until applaud ye all the player cries. Note well all ages' habits as they live, to varying ears and dispositions give, the character which they should each receive. Mark first the boy, who just has learned to talk, and with a steady foot alone to walk. With those of his own age in gammals ranging, soon angry, calm the soon, with each hour changing. The beardless youth release from tutors' claims, the lights in horses, dogs, and campus games. Plastic as walks in being bent to vice, turlish to those who tender him advice, slow in providing what may prove of use, yet of his money lavishly perfuse, haughty, ambitious, readily his moved, that to resign, which he but lately loved. His views now changed, his mainly eye and mind, seek wealth and friendships, honors, thrive to fine. His careful less himself he should commit, to things which soon to change he may see fit. Discomforts many the old men's around, either because he seeks what went is found, and hoards up wretchedly, or that all business with timidity and coldness he transacts, through crastinates, through long vista hopes, in negative weights. Thirsts for long life is peevish and morose, in praise of his young days is prone to prose. Blame of his juniors he will oft express, and chy their actions with sensoriousness. Years as they come bring comforts in their train, years as they go take them away again, assign not to a youth an old men's spark, nor let a boy possess a grown men's heart. To every stage of life be sure you give, the proper adjuncts which each should receive. Upon the stage the facts are either shown, or they are reported as already done. Things by the ear receive men's minds excite, much less than when submitted to the sight. For the spectator with his trusty eyes, to his own mind impressions best applies. Yet you'll avoid to bring upon the scene things worthy only to be done within, in which in vivid words appropriate, one who had witnessed them can well relate. Let not Medea decency affride, and kill her offspring in the people's sight, and let not atreas in his wicked rage, human intestines cook upon the stage, display not proctness turned into a bird, nor cadmus to a snake, both scenes absurd. Whatever things like this you show to me, I hate and view with incredulity. A play should have five acts, nor less nor more, to be invoked and acted or and or. The aid invoked not of a deity, unless and not worthy a god there be. Let no fourth person on the stage intrude, to mar the dialogue, but it is good, the chorus should sustain the actor's art, and vigorous action to the playing part. But twix the acts it should not utter art, that's not connected with nor helps the plot. Let it support the good with counsel aid, the angry rule love those to sin afraid. Let it to friggle tables yield applause, let it vie sound and impartial laws, let it with justice trick imbued estates, and to them peace command with open yades. Let it conceal all secret things that may, to it committed be, and let it pray, and supplicate the gods good luck to make, visit the wretched and the proud forsake. The olden flute, not then as not is found, jointed with brass reveling the trumpet sound, but slender with few stops and simply made, served well the chorus to sustain an aid, and with its tones the theater, which still was not close cram sufficiently to fill. There flock the people countable though small. Their number friggle, modest, chased with all. When they victorious add to their domains, and when a wider wall their towns contains, when noonday draughts of wine free as they please, and holidays the genius appease, then with more license rhythm and time unite, to help the players and the crowd delight. Yet what of taste could the rude rustic know, with it polite mixed up noble with low? Thus the musician tended to impart movement luxurious to the ancient art, and up and down the stage with measured tread, behind him dragged the roll with train outstread. Notes too were added to the solemn lyre, and the barred's words in patch was full of fire, a style of dialect then introduced, which never before upon the stage was used, as to the things present shrew the sentiment, and as to things to come so prescient. I would bear in truth comparison full well with any vaunted delphic article. The poet who a tragic drama wrote, in competition for a vile he goad, soon after rustic satires naked too, brought on the stage, was a rough jest his view, was saving tragedy's severity, to lure and keep with grateful novelty, him who, his sacred duty is duly done, drunk to the playhouse came for roistering fun, when merry witty satires thus you choose, into a tragedy to introduce, and to convert things serious into jest, then he who played a god or hero dressed, lateling robes of purple mixed with gold, should not, by using language lo, make bold to pass into mean taverns nor take fights, shunning the ground to clouds and empty heights. But tragedy, who hates like predling phrase, like matron bid to dance on holidays, will mingle with those satires, purred and free, with some reserve and bashful modesty. But should I write satiric plays, I choose, not plain and literal words alone to use, nor from the tragic style so deviate, that it would matter not if devas prayed, and the bold pithia, when from Simeo she extracts his cash by errant roguery, or rather speaks Silenus, grave but free, who guards and serves his foster deity. End of Part 1. This recording is in the public domain. The Art of Poetry by Quintus Oratius Flacus, translated by Andrew Wood, read for LibriVox.org by Linny. Part 2. From a known theme add so my poem frame, that each might hope that he could do the same. But having struggled hard with toil and pain, he'd find at last that he had worked in vain. So much avail lines well range than knit, and common subjects so much grace admit. Fonts from the forests brought, for so I wean, should not, as if in cities bred it been, and trained to business in the marketplace, converse in mincing namby-pamby phrase, or belch forth words improper and obscene, and language born of slander and of spleen. Petitions, knights, and men of fortune, hate such things as these, nor can they tolerate, nor with approval crown the things which please, that class who buy roast chestnuts and chickpeas. When a long syllable succeeds a short, that's an iambis, measure of swift sort. When also it of trimeters the name, cave to iambics when six beats the same, from first to last it had, not long ago, that it might yield a sound more grave and slow, contentedly it took, writing the please, within its own domain the state spendies. But not to quit the second or fourth place, did it as comrades kindly these embrace. Rarely we find this compound kind of verse, in assias famed and noble trimeters. Judgement severe on any is must be passed, because upon the stage he verses cast, ponderous with spundies which be toped haste, or want of care, of knowledge, or of taste. It is not every critic who can see in lines the want of tuneful harmony. And Roman poets have indulgence, God, which they undoubtedly deserved have not. Should I then ramble and write lawlessly? Or should I, thinking all my faults will see, save within pardons bounds my self-preserve? That were but blame to Shan, not praise deserve. Ply Grecian models, my friends, spistle, pray, with care them study both by night and day. Your ancestors, you say, fought fit to praise, the wit and numbers of old plotters plays. Yes, one and daughter, they too patiently, we may say foolishly admired, if we, how to distinguish wit from coarseness, no, and can by beating time true cadence show. Fespis invented tragedy, he said, before unknown, in wagons he conveyed, those who to sing and act his plays appeared, having with leaves of wine their faces smeared. And next came asculus, the mask he used, and the grand flowing robe first introduced. The stage with planks of moderate size, he led, taught lofty uterins and the buskin's trad. To these succeeded the old comedy, worthy of no small praise, yet liberty to license ran and into violence, needing to be restrained by law, and hence when the law passed the power of mesquifor, to its disgrace the chorus spoke no more. Our poets try that everything their hand, for this are special praise they may command, because they dared Greek subjects to esque, and from domestic facts their themes they drew, whether they wrote in tragic high-tone strain, or humbler, plainer, low-tone comic vein. Nor last renowned in letters would Rome be, than by her glorious arms and bravery, ift were not that her poets, every one, time-slaps and the foul's work were prone to shan. Ho-pizos sprung from Numa's blood-direct, with censor view a work which took erect, by toil of many a day and many a blot, a bard has grudged, which he has treated not, with castigation tenfold till it be changed and amended to a nice tea. Because that sage-democratus pretends, that genius-wretched study farch and sense, because same bards from Helicon hid bar, it comes that many poets slowens are. Neglect their nails to pair, their beards to trim, avoid their bath, retire and seek through whim. For he, for sooth, it seems made rightly claim, a poet's girden and a poet's name. If never he his head submitted has, incurable by three enticerous, to barber listeners, o stupid eye, who, when the time of swing approaches try, by purgatives my bile to put the flight, who but for this could better poems write. Tis no great matter, therefore let me play, the green-stone spark, which iron sharp may, yet of itself for cutting isn't fit. I'll nothing write myself, but in submit, to those who do, such rules as may write, teach them their duties and their functions quite. Teach them where their resources they may find, what forms, what nourishes, the poet's mind. Teach twigs unfit and fit the difference, wither leads error, wither excellence. Good sense of writing well is found and sourced, the matter you'll best find if you have recourse to the socratic words, your theme well-con, the words with readiness will follow one. He who has learned what to his friends he owes, what to his country he who rightly knows, how one should love a parent, brother, guest, who understands the functions which invest, the office of a judge or senator, the part of one as general sent a war, he should be skilled in that without dispute, his language to each character to suit. The skillful imitator I would tell, of life and morals ever to mark well, the living models that with living fire, the language of his works they may inspire. Sometimes a play which wants skill, weight and grace, because this rich entalling come on place, and varied characters exemplifies, proves more attractive in the people's eyes. Their interest too, it longer keeps than place, lacking in incidents, mere jingling lays. Unto the Greeks who covet not the praise, the muse has genius given and polished phrase. But as for Roman boys, is there concern by calculations tedious to learn. And as into a hundred parts to share, suppose one asks Albinas son, when there you from five ounces take one ounce away, what's left, you used to know, for he will say, good you rejoin, well will you guard your store, but if there should be added one ounce more, say what would be your calculation then, the sum will be six ounces that explain. If wealth's corrosion and anxiety shall thus possess men's minds, how should it be, that one can hope that poems can be read, worthy that we their custody commit, when once with setter oil they've been imbued, to boxes wrought of polished cypress wood. The bard seeks either to instruct or please, or he attempts to gather both of these, to compass and combine what pleasure gives, with what will tend to guide man as he lives. If precepts you'd in part use brevity, so that the docile mind may quickly see, what you would teach it faithfully retain. From a full mind all words superflu was drained, fiction that's meant to please should ever be, as near as may be each reality, nor should a play credence entire receive, for whatsoever it asks one to believe, for instance, from a well fed lomy as maw, it would never do a living boy to draw. Grave seniors, uninstructive plays will spurn, on plays all steer, proud knights their backs will turn, he who they useful and agreeable, in happy harmony has mingled well, and in one breath delight and warning gives, a general vote of gratitude receives. A work like this merits the sauciest pay, to lands across the sea it finds its way, and down the stream of time, wafted by fame, to distant ages bears its author's name. Yet there are faults which one would faint excuse, not aid a tone which hand and mind would choose, gives the string forth, for not unfrequently, when we require a flat, a sharpt will be, nor always will the arrow from the bow strike, where the archer meant that it should go. When in a poem beauties much abound, why should we chide if a few stains be found, which have crept in through want of proper care, or of which human nature can't be wear. What shall we say, if a transcriber make, although we've worn him off the same mistake, he's not excused, we laugh at a harp player, should he upon the same string always err, and so the bard, whose falter numerous, seems to me like that stupid quarreless, whom, if he on a few occasions shine, to wander and to laugh at, I incline, and I the same somewhat annoyed may feel, if or good hummer sleep at time should steal, to one who writes a lengthened work, indeed, rightly we may to snatch and nap concede. With poems, as with paintings, tis the case, that some please more when viewed from a near place, whereas to others, if you justice do, them at a distance you are bound to view. Some court a shade, some love the sunlight's blaze, nor holding dread the critic's kinest gaze. Some please for once, and then to please they seize, others ten times repeated still will please. O thou the elder of the Piso youth, though by the father's voice thou art formed to truth, and of thyself art wise, yet what I say, take up, and in thy memory let it stay, that in some things allowable may be, mere average worth and mediocrity, one who has no great knowledge of the laws, and who can only fairly plead a cause, far from Asala's excellence may be, in eloquence, nor as much law knows he, as does Castileus Aulis, that's quite true, and yet that man has his own value too, but mediocre bards, nor gods, I vow, nor man, nor booksellers, will err allow. Mids pleasant feasts sometimes to make us sick, in true discordant music, unguent thick, and bitter poppy conserves which are made with honey from Sardinia conveyed, because the supramite with these dispense, the greater to the guests is the offense, and so a poem which abard indicts the offspring of his brain to yield the lights, if from the top a little it descend down to the bottom is too apt to tend. One who is strength in games has nare employed, the struggles of the campus will avoid, he who of ball who poet knows not the use will rest in quiet and to play refuse, less of surrounding bystanders the crowd should mock his efforts with derision loud, yet he who knows the verse not a jot will dare to fashion poems, and why not? His free, well-born, has fortune may suffice to constitute a night void of all vice, but you, such is your judgment, such your mind, will not what's wrong to wisdom's prompting blind or say or do, if ever you should write the critic messiest judgment you'll invite, your father's too and mine, your manuscript, for nine long years should in your desk be kept, what you've not published you may change or burn, a word once uttered never can return, or fears of God's priest and interpreter, the savage race of mankind to deter from murder and from vituals foul prevail. On this account was said he never failed by softening influences to his wage, the tigers and the rabid lions rage, and Phiam too, who built the Theban towers, his harp and winning voice employed his powers to move the stony rock from out its bed and lead it at his pleasure, so to say. For this was wisdom judged in days of old, public from private things distinct to hold, things sacred from profane to separate, to check light love and rule the married state, towns fortified to build was then thought good and to inscribe the code of laws on wood, and thus distinction and a glorious name, to bards divine and to their poems came. Great Homer and Tertill's next appeared, they in their works men's manly bosoms cheered and proudly spurred them on to fill the fight, poems were used to bring men's fates to light, by them the proper path of life was taught, and in Pyerian strains king's favor sought, sports were found out and the hard work to cheer verse served their labor or to crown the year, to worship Phoebus, god of poetry, and lyric muse ashamed you need not be. We know another question has been raised, whether a poem worthy to be praised owes more to nature or owes more to art. I must confess, I see not for my part how study without genius can succeed and how untuttered genius well can speed, each from the other seems to ask its aid, as friends united they stand on this maid. Him in the rays would reach the winning post, endurance much and toil it must have cost. When young he must both cold and heat have braved, himself from love and wine's enticement saved. The harpist at the Pythian games would play must first have learned and felt a master's sway. Nort is enough a poet should exclaim, I wondrous poems write which gild my name, play take the hinmost where a great disgrace if I were left behind hand in the race, and to confess where it first sooth my lot that I don't know that which I never was taught. An auction crier to collect a crowd, his wares to buy puffs them in accent's loud. Even so a poet who's of land possessed, rich too in cash laid out at interest, his gold-distributing with liberal hen is sure the praise of flatterers to command. And if he's one who can a dinner give in hensome style, or a poor man relieve, who credit-gone needs good security, and from vexations lost would set him free, though blessed he be, I'd wonder if he knew, a false friend to distinguish from a true. Should you have made, or should you mean to make, to when you want a present, don't him take replete with joy to judge your poetry. He'll cry out, bravo, lovely, good, ah, me. Then he'll grow pale, and next there will appear in his moist eye like dew the friendly tear. He'll dance and jump about like one inspired, as at a funeral the mourners hired by voice and action play a stronger part than friends and relatives who mourn at heart. So will the flatterer far more move the peer than he whose approbation is sincere. They say that kings with many wine-cups supply, and thus extort from him whom they would spy, whether it be the case or know that be, a favored and a friendship worthy be. If you'll write poetry, be sure you'll need, of cunning fox-like flatterers to take heed. If to Quintilius you should ought recite, he'll say, I pray you this and that, put right. If that you can't do better you maintain, for you have tried it twice or thrice in vain, he'd bid you then the false delete or burn, and to the anvil ill-wrought lines return. But if these thoughts you rather would defend, than take the pains to alter and amend, he not a word would add, nor further try, for then he knows he'll fail most certainly. To bulk your notion that your works and you, you fondly may as quite unrivaled view. An honest, skillful critic will find fault with languid lines and those he raise which hold. Lines that are rough he'll blame, and tropes or nades from the ambitious lines he'll amputate. For the obscure more light he'll recommend, and the ambiguous he will reprehand, about things requiring change he'll not be dumb, a second are his starkest he'll become. Nor will he say, wherefore should I offend, in matters which but trifles are a friend, tis by such trifles mischief is in jail, on those who've once made public laughter failed. The wise with a mad poet contact fear, and fly incontinent if he come near, as from one with the itch or jaundice sick, the fury is stricken or the lunatic, him children of the pavement chase in hoot, and foolish adults join in the pursuit. While spouting verses he had random strace, his head erect as at the sky he'd gaze, if like a fowler keenly occupied, in sneering blackwards he per chance should slide, into a ditch or well, though long he cried, help, help, o citizens, yet none will hide, to pull him out, or if there one should be, inclined to help him out for charity, and to let down a rope, to him I'll say, I'll know you but the man on purpose may himself have brought into this sorry plight, and would not have you save him, if you might. This, to illustrate, I would then relate, the bard of Sicily's untimely fate, that fool and pedaclies who madly sought to be a deity mortal thought, and with sang foie for cool himself he kept, into the burning fire of Edna left, give poets right and leave to perish still, to save them guess their wish is them to kill, nor only once has he done this for he, though you should rescue him, will never be a reasonable man nor cease to sigh from the desire of famous death to die. Why it is doomed that from his pen should flow a constant stream of verse we scarcely know, did he his father's grave with insult treat, or has he trod with sacrilegious feet, the sad by dental's presence, one thing's clear, his mad, and like a bear in his career, if it have broke the gradens of its then, the merciless rehearser, where is then, learned and unlearned, and if he should succeed in catching one, him he to death will read, just like a leech which to one's skin sticks fast, nor quits its whole to gorge with blood at last. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. Trillivrivox.org, baileni. Alme sol, curu nithi do di emqui, promiset ke las alius quetidem, naskeris postis nihil urberoma, visere mayus, ditem aturos aperire partus, lenis ilithia, tu ere matres siu etulukina, probas vocari, seo genitalis, produkas subolem patrunque, prosperes, lecretasu periugandis, feminis prolisque no wae, feraki lege marita, kiertus un denos de chiens peranos, orvisu kantus, referatque ludus, derdi e clarotto tiensque grata, nocte frequentis, wosque, werakis kekiniseparkai, qualsemel dixte stabilis quererum, terminus seruet, bonayam peraktis yungite fata. Fertilis frubun, pecoris quetelus, spike adonet, kererem corona, nutriant fetus, eda quais alubres etulis aurae. Condito mitis plakidus quetelo, suplikes audi pueros apolo, siderum reginabikornis, audi lunapuelas. Roma si vestres opus iliaike, litus etruscum, tenduere turmai, yusapars mutare lares eturbe, sospite cursu, quiper ardentem, sinefraudetroiam, castus aineas, patriaisuperstes, liberumunniuit eterdaturus, plura relictis, di provos moris dochili juventai, di senectuti plakidai quietem, romulay genti, daterem queprolem quet decus omne. Qua'i quewos bobus, veneratur albis, clarus ankisai venerisque sanguis, impetre belante prior, yacentem, lenis in hostem, yam maritera quema nuspotentis, medus albanas quetimet secudis, yams chefai responsapetun superbi, nuperetindi, yam fides et paks et honos pudorque, priskus et neglecta redire virtus, audet at parekwe beata pleno, copia cornu. Algoret fulgiente de corus arcu, foibus a che dusque nuvem kamenis, quis salutari lewat artefesos, corporis artus, si palatinas widet aikwos aras, rempero manam latiumque felix, auter in lustrum meliusque semper, prorogatai wum, quae quawentinum tenet algi dunque, quindekin diyana prekes virorum, curatet wotis queror amikas adlikat audis, haik yawem sem tirer e osque cuntos, spembonam kertam quedumum reporto, doktus et foibikorus et diyanae di kere laudes. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain. Karmen saikulare by quintus oratius flakus, translated by John Connington, read for LibriVox.org by Lenny. Fibis and Diana, Huntress Fair, today an always magnified, bright lights of heaven, accord our prayer, this holy tide, on which the civil's volume wills, that youths and maidens without stain, to gods who love the seven-deer hills, should chant this train. Son, that unchanged yet ever new, leads out the way and brings it home, may not be present to thy view more great than Rome. Blessed Elythea, be thou near, intraveil to each Roman dame. Listener, genitalis hear, whatever thy name. O make our youth to live and grow, the father's nuptial council speed, those laws that shalt on Rome bestow, a plantis seed. So when a hundred years and ten, bring round the cycle, gamen song, three days, three nights, shall charm again the festival throng. Ye too ye fate, whose righteous doom declared but once is sure as heaven, link on new blessings yet to come, to blessings given. Let earth with grain and cattle rife, crown serious brow with breven corn, soft winds, sweet waters, nurse to life, the newly born. O lay thy shafts, Apollo, by, let supply and youths obtain thine ear, thou moon fair regent of the sky, thy maidens here. If Rome is yours, if Troy's remains safe by your conduct, sought and found another city, other faines on Tuscan ground, for whom midfires and tiles of slain, Elythea's made a broad highway, destined pureheart, with greater gain, their loss to pay. Grant to our sons unblemished ways, grant to our sires an age of peace, grant to our nation power and praise, enlarge in creeds. See, at your shrine with victims white, praise Venus and Ankaiza's hair, O prompt him still the photos might, the fallen to spare. Now media dreads our albin steel, our victories land and ocean ore, See, thea an end in supply and sneals, who proud before. Faith, honor, ancient modesty, and peace and virtues spite of scorn, come back to earth, and plenty see with timming horn. Ogre and lord of silver bowl, Apollo, darling of the nine, who hill-star frame when langers slow, have made it pine. Love's thou thine own palatial hill, prolong the glorious life of Rome, to other cycles brightening still, through time to come. From Algidas and Aventine, list goddess to our grave fifteen, to praying youth's nine-ear incline Diana queen. This jove and all the gods agree, so trusting when we home again, Phoebus and Diane's singers we, and this our strain. End of poem, this recording is in the public domain.