Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Licenza

Fons Bandusia

By Horace (65–8 B.C.)

(From The Odes)
Translated by R. M. Hovenden

BANDUSIAN fountain, crystal-bright,

With duly offered flowers and wine

To-morrow shall a kid be thine,

Whose front, with sprouting horns bedight,

Foretokens love and battle-shock:

Vain token; for thy chilling flood

Must take the crimson of his blood,

Young promise of the wanton flock.

In sultry dog-day’s hottest noon,

Unsunned, a cool repose art thou

To oxen from the toilsome plough,

To wandering sheep a welcome boon.

Henceforth run on, patrician spring,

Made noble by my verse, that gave

To fame that ilex-sheltered cave

Whereon thy babbling waters ring.