Multa fero, ut placem genus irritabile vatum,
ne supra crepidam sutor judicaret. (Ib. 102)

    (I have to submit to much in order to pacify the sensitive race of poets.)

Quodcumque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi. (Ib. 188)

    (Anything that you thus thrust upon my sight, I discredit and revolt at.)

Quid te exempta iuvat spinis de pluribus una?
Vivere si recte nescis, decede peritis.
Lusisti satis, edisti satis atque bibisti:
Tempus abire tibi est. (Ib. 212)
 
(How can it relieve you to pluck one thorn out of so many roses?
If you do not know how to live aright, make way for those who do.
You have played enough, have eaten and drunk enough.
It is time for you to leave the scene.)


Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri,
quo me cumque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes. (Ib. 14)
 

(I am not bound over to swear allegiance to any master:
where the wind carries me, I put into port and make myself at home.)

    ("Poets and painters," you say,
    "have always had an equal licence in daring invention."
    We know it: this [a.o. association and free speech] liberty
    we claim for ourselves and give again to others.)

Mediocribus esse poetis
non homines, non di, non concessere columnae. (Ib. 372)
 
(Poets are either worth their salt or they are not,
for to be mediocre is a privilege
which neither men, nor gods, nor editors ever allowed.)


Prisco si credis, [Iconoclast] Maecenas ducte, Cratino,
nulla placere diu nec vivere carmina possunt
quae scribuntur aquae potoribus. (Epistles, I. xix. I)
 

(You know, Maecenas, as well I [Horace Iconoclast] do,
that if you [continue to follow the party line] and trust old Cratinus,
no poems can please long, nor live,
which were written by water-drinkers
[i.e. Pappenheimer, Seldwyler, Berner Dünnbrettbohrer,
Basler Webstübler, Zürcher peanut gnomes, and the like].)


Amphora coepit institui:
currente rota cur urceus exit? (Ib. 14)
 

(It was a wine-jar [i.e. a serious anti-lex americana campaign,
rather than a self-deluding feel-good PR operation] that was to be moulded:
as the wheel runs round, why does it come a [seemingly useless] pitcher?)


Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio. (Ib. 25)
 

(It is when I [am not being given the necessary means and, upon your insistence]
am struggling to be brief that [my message is misunderstood and]
I become unintelligible.)


At qui legitimum cupiet fecisse peoma,
cum tabulis animum censoris sumet honesti. (Ib. 109)
 

(But if a poem is to be effective and true to the laws of the art,
the poet must not neglect his role of an honest censor.)


Non fumum ex fulgore,
sed ex fumo dare lucem cogitat. (Ib. 143)
 

(His thought is not to give flame first and then smoke,
but from smoke to let light break out in order to enlighten his sponsors.)
 
Indocilis pauperiem pati. (Odes, I. i. 18)
 
(Who can content himself with neglect or underuse
of one's creative and productive capacities?
Is a fair sharing in the wealth created by one's labors
not a signal mark of a wise husbandry of one's resources?
And is an unflinching strengthening of a confirmed thinker's arms
not one of the most rewarding investments of a banker worth his salt?)


O rus, quando ego te aspiciam?
Quandoque licebit nunc veterum libris,
nunc somno et inertibus horis,
ducere sollicitae iucunda oblivia vitae? (Ib. 60)
 

(O country home, when shall I look on you again?
When shall I be allowed, between my [many times lost] library
and sleep and hours of idleness,
to drink the sweet draughts that make us forget the troubles of life?)


Hoc erat in votis:
modus agri non ita magnus,
hortus ubi et tecto vicinus iugis aquae fons
et paulum silvae super his foret. (Ib. vi. I)
 

(This used to be among my prayers:
a portion of land not so very large, but which should contain a garden,
and near the homestead a spring of ever-flowing water,
and a bit of forest to complete it.)


Sit mihi quod nunc est, etiam minus,
et mihi vivam quod superest aevi,
si quid superesse volunt di;
sit bona librorum et provisae frugis in annum
copia, neu fluitem dubiae spe pendulus horea.
Sed satis est orare Iovem qui ponit et aufert,
det vitam, det opes: aequum mi animum ipse parabo.
 

(Help me get what I already own, [need and deserve,] or even less;
and therewith let me live to myself [and with my better half]
for what remains of life, if the gods will that anything remain.
Don't starve me of either mental or earthly food [which alone enables me
to continue to give you timely advice on impending dangers, like Y2K];
nor let me hang and tremble on the hope of the uncertain hour.
Nay, it is enough to ask Jove, who gives them and takes them away,
that He grant life and subsistence;
a balanced mind, I will find myself [- mash'allah].)
 
Horace Iconoclast

Franz Blankart
Pierre Darier
Eric Delissy
Charles Pictet
Pierre Pictet
Enrico Querio
Thomas Schmidheiny
Nicolas Zuber