Epodes 1 (Martin): Ibis Liburnis

If thou in thy Liburnians go
Amid the bulwark'd galleys of the foe,
Resolved, my friend Maecenas, there
All Caesar's dangers as thine own to share,
What shall we do, whose life is gay
Whilst thou art here, but sad with thee away?
Obedient to thy will, shall we
Seek ease, not sweet, unless 't is shared by thee?
Or shall we with such spirit share
Thy toils, as men of gallant heart should bear?
Bear them we will; and Alpine peak
Scale by thy side, or Caucasus the bleak;
Or follow thee with dauntless breast
Into the farthest ocean of the West.
And shouldst thou ask, how I could aid
Thy task, unwarlike I, and feebly made?
Near thee my fears, I answer, would
Be less, than did I absent o'er them brood;
As of her young, if they were left,
The bird more dreads by snakes to be bereft,
Than if she brooded on her nest.
Although she could not thus their doom arrest.
Gladly, in hopes your grace to gain,
I'll share in this or any fresh campaign!
Not, trust me, that more oxen may.
Yoked in my ploughshares, turn the yielding clay,
Nor that, to 'scape midsummer's heat,
My herds may to Lucanian pastures sweet
From my Calabrian meadows change;
Nor I erect upon the sunny range
Of Tusculum, by Circe's walls,
A gorgeous villa's far-seen marble halls!
Enough and more thy bounty has
Bestow'd on me; I care not to amass
Wealth either, like old Chremes in the play,
To hide in earth, or fool, like spendthrift heir, away!