Exegi monumentum aere perennius
Regalique situ pyramidum altius,
Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
Possit diruere aut innumberabilis
Annorum series et fuga temporum.
Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
Vitabit Libitinam: usque ego postera
Crescam laude recens. Dum Capitolium
Scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex,
Dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus
Et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
Regnavit populorum, ex humili potens
Princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos
Deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
Quaestiam meritis et mihi Delphica
Lauro cinge volens, Melopomene, comam.
I have completed a monument more durable than bronze
and higher than the majestic place of the pyramids,
because no consuming rain, nor powerless North Wind
can destroy [it] or the innumerable succession of years
and the flight of the seasons.
Not entirely shall I die and parts of me
will evade Death: on and on I will increase
in new praise. While the pontifex
mounts the Capitol with a silent virgin
I will be celebrated, where the furious Aufidus
makes a clamor and Danus, poor in water, once ruled
over rustic people, powerful from humble [origins]
the Aeolian song transferred into Italian poetry.
Take the proud honor sought by the meritorious and
graciously wreath my hair with Delphic laurel.
I used Bennett's edition of Horace
(my copy is the first edition) and pieces of may translation amended from his notes. I also discussed the translation with Propertius II, although I did not take particularly good notes so I may have made mistakes that he urged me to correct.
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