Let a hardy lad learn well and happily,
through fierce training, to suffer constricting poverty
and let he, who must be feared, harry the fierce Parthians
on horseback with his spear,
and let him lead his life outdoors, in dangerous
situations. Seeing him from the enemy walls,
May the mother of a warlike tyrant,
And his adult daughter,
sigh "Alas, may my royal husband,
unskilled in harsh battles,
not enrage that lion by touch, whom bloody
anger seizes in the midsts of slaughter."
It is sweet and proper to die for your country:
Death, too, pursues the runaway man
And does not spare the knees of a peaceful youth
nor a fearful back.
Courage, unaware of putrid defeat,
gleams with unblemished honours,
and neither takes nor places the axes of power
on the judgement of the common ear.
Courage, opening heaven to those who do not deserve to die,
attempts the journey on the road denied,
and rejects both common crowds and damp
soil on wing in flight.
There is also in faithful silence a safe
reward; I will forbid the man who reveals
the right of secret Ceres, to be
beneath the same roof, and
to untie a fragile boat with me; often Jupiter,
neglected, adds the innocent to the wicked,
but Punishment, on limping foot,
has rarely forgotten a previous crime.
angustam amice pauperiem pati
robustus acri militia puer condiscat et Parthos feroces vexet eques metuendus hasta
vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat
in rebus. illum ex moenibus hosticis matrona bellantis tyranni prospiciens et adulta virgo
suspiret “eheu, ne rudis agminum
sponsus lacessat regius asperum tactu leonem, quem cruenta per medias rapit ira caedes.”
dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum nec parcit inbellis iuventae poplitibus timidoque tergo.
Virtus, repulsae nescia sordidae,
intaminatis fulget honoribus nec sumit aut ponit securis arbitrio popularis aurae.
Virtus, recludens inmeritis mori
caelum, negata temptat iter via coetusque vulgaris et udam spernit humum fugiente pinna.
est et fideli tuta silentio
merces: vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum vulgarit arcanae, sub isdem sit trabibus fragilemque mecum
solvat phaselon; saepe Diespiter
neglectus incesto addidit integrum, raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede Poena claudo.