Uploaded on July 12, 2011
… Soon your time’s coming to be turned down
and feel the scorn of the men about town–
a cheap hag haunting alley places
O moonless nights when the wind from Thrace is
rising and raging, and so is the fire
in your raddled loins, the brute desire
that drives the mother of horses mad.
You’ll be lonely then, and complain how sad
that the gay young boys enjoy the sheen
of ivy best or the darker green
of myrtle: dry old leaves they send
as a gift to the east wind, winter’s friend.
–Horace
translated from the Latin by James Michie
The Giant Book of Poetry
Edited by William H. Roetzheim
7.12.2023: This is the restaurant at Spruce Point Inn in Boothbay Harbor. The family and I used to do a little traveling. Maybe we will again.