Horace's Odes: a translation for the elderly

Horace’s phrases such as “carpe diem” and “dulce et decorum est” pervade our modern culture. And yet, when it comes to his original poetry, he is deemed inaccessible by many outside academia. This attitude is especially felt by elderly readers, a demographic that has generally been overlooked by publishers. With his themes of aging and living fully in light of death, however, Horace’s poetry has enormous appeal to an aging audience. It is time that a translation of the Odes be targeted at this demographic.

Stripping away decades of academic accumulation, this translation aims to recover the humanity of Horace, the poet. His reactions towards the chaos of his day are centered, with his weariness and uncertainty given pride of place. Alongside this cautious outlook, Horace encourages his reader to be content with moderation. As the Odes are the last of Horace’s major collections, produced when he was at an older age, these themes and attitudes reflect those same concerns of many elderly readers.