Inops

Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam
maiorumque fames. iure perhorrui
late conspicuum tollere verticem,
Maecenas, equitum decus.

quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit,
ab dis plura feret; nil cupientium
nudus castra peto et transfuga divitum
partes linquere gestio,

contemptae dominus splendidior rei,
quam si quicquid arat imnpiger Apulus
occultare meis dicerer horreis,
magnas inter opes inops.

purae rivus aquae silvaque iugerum
paucorum et segetis certa fides meae
fulgentem imperio fertilis Africae
fallit sorte beatior.

(Horace, Carm. 3.16.17-32)

Care follows growing wealth and hunger to
have more; rightly I have trembled to
lift up my head too ostentatiously,
Maecénas, honored knight.

The more each one denies himself, the more
he will have from the gods: I naked seek
the camp of those not covetous and
eagerly desert the rich,

of wealth despised more grand as master than
if I were said to hoard within my barns
all that is tilled by brisk Apúlia—
‘mid great means, lacking means.

A limpid stream, a forest of few acres,
and continued trust in my own crops
—this more blessed lot eludes a magnate ruling
fertile Africa.

(tr. Jeffrey H. Kaimowitz)