Apollo: all I ask is what I own already,
And the peace to enjoy it, sound in body
And mind, and a promise of honor
In old age, and to go on singing to the end.

[Frui paratis et valido mihi
Latoë, dones, et precor, integra
Cum mente; nec turpem senectam
Degere, nec cithara carentem.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 1, # 31, l. 17ff (1.31.17-20) (23 BC) [tr. Raffel (1983)]
    (Source)

This poem is said to have been inspired by the new temple to Apollo built by Augustus on the Palatine in AUC 726. It is framed as being from a poet (likely Horace himself) considering what to ask from Apollo as a blessing. These are the concluding four lines.

Apollo here is referred to as the son of the goddess Latona (Greek Leto).

The reason for the longer-than-usual list of translators is that this passage is quoted at the end of Montaigne's Essays, Book 3, ch. 13 "Of Experience," the final essay in his collection, written in 1587, and translations from that context are also included here.(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Apollo graunt, enjoy health I may
That I have got, and with sound minde, I pray:
Nor that I may with shame spend my old yeares,
Nor wanting musike to delight mine eares.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

Latona's Son,
In Minde and Bodies health my own
T' enjoy; old Age from dotage free,
And solac'd with the Lute, give me.
[tr. Fanshaw; ed. Brome (1666)]

O (great Apollo) grant
To me in health, and free from life's annoy,
Things native, and soon gotten to enjoy;
And with a mind compos'd old Age attain,
Not loathsome, nor depriv'd of Lyrick strain.
[tr. "Sir T. H."; ed. Brome (1666)]

A Mind to use my present Store
With Health and Life, but not so long
As brings Contempt, or cramps my Song;
Grant this Apollo, and I ask no more.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

O thou son of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to possess my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I beseech thee; and that I may not lead a dishonorable old age, nor one bereft of the lyre.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

O grant me, Phoebus, calm content,
Strength unimpairEd, a mind entire,
Old age without dishonour spent,
Nor unbefriended by the lyre!
[tr. Conington (1872)]

And health
Give thou, Latoë, so I might
Enjoy my present wealth!
Give me but these, I ask no more,
These, and a mind entire --
And old age, not unhonour'd, nor
Unsolaced by the lyre!
[tr. Martin (1864)]

Give me health in myself to enjoy the things granted,
O thou son of Latona; sound mind in sound body;
Keep mine age free from all that degrades,
And let it not fail of the lyre.
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]

Grant it to me, Apollo, that I may enjoy what I have in good health; let me be sound in body and mind; let me live in honor when old, nor let music be wanting.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

Grant it to me, Apollo, that I may enjoy my possessions in good health; let me be sound in mind; let me not lead a dishonourable old age, nor want the cittern.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877), alternate]

Son of Latona, grant me, I pray, to enjoy in health of body and soundness of mind what I possess, and let my old age be honourable and rendered happy by the charms of music.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]

Give me then health, Apollo; give
Sound mind; on gotten goods to live
Contented; and let song engage
An honoured, not a base, old age.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]

Health to enjoy the blessings thou givest me,
Grant me, Latoe, with a sound mind, I pray;
Nor let my age be e'er unhonour'd.
Nor unattended with lyric measures.
[tr. Phelps (1897)]

Grant me in health to relish what I have
In store, Latona's son, with mind I pray,
Unclouded -- and to pass an eld
Not base, nor of my harp deprived.
[tr. Garnsey (1907)]

Grant, god, that with my lot
I live content, hale, and still fresh my gift, --
Grant that in age I may not drift
Long years, my lyre forgot.
[tr. Marshall (1908)]

Grant me, O Latona’s son, to be content with what I have, and, sound of body and of mind, to pass an old age lacking neither honour nor the lyre!
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]

Grant me, Apollo, for the rest,
Contentment, health, sound wits and bright,
An honoured eld, by music blest.
[tr. Mills (1924)]

Grant, I pray, son of Latona, that I enjoy full health, and with mind uunimpaired, the goods that have been prepared for me; and that my old age be not unhonoured, nor lack the lyre.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

Grant me, Latona's son, but health,
Grant me a mind entire,
Contentment and a dignified old age,
Not lacking in the sweetness of the lyre.
[tr. Zeitlin (1934)]

Grant me but health, Latona's son,
And to enjoy the wealth I've won,
And honored age, with mind entire
And not unsolaced by the lyre.
[tr. Frame (1943)]

Delight had I healthily in what lay handy provided.
Grant me now, Latoe:
full wit in my cleanly age,
Nor lyre lack me, to tune the page.
[tr. Pound (c. 1955)]

Grant me, Apollo, that I may enjoy with healthy body and sound mind the goods that have been prepared for me, and that my old age be honourable and no stranger to the lyre.
[tr. Cohen (1958)]

Here's what I crave most, son of Latona, then:
Good health, a sound mind, relish of life, and an
Old age that still maintains a stylish
Grip on itself and the lyric metres.
[tr. Michie (1963)]

Vouchsafe, O Son of Latona, that I may enjoy those things I have prepared; and, with my mind instact I pray, may I not degenerate into a squalid senility, in which the lyre is wanting.
[tr. Screech (1987)]

Apollo grant that I be satisfied
With what I have as what I ought to have,
And that I live my old age out with honor,
In health of mind and body, doing my work.
[tr. Ferry (1997)]

Grant me, O son of Latona, I pray
that I take joy in what I have
Sound in mind and body entire
and my old age lacking neither honor nor lyre.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]

Apollo, the son
of Latona, let me enjoy what I have,
and, healthy in body and mind, as I ask,
live an old age not without honour,
and one not lacking the art of the lyre.
[tr. Kline (2015)]


 
Added on 21-Feb-25 | Last updated 21-Feb-25
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