The following six verse extracts consider different aspects of "Otium", which means "Leisure" or "Ease." These pieces are taken from "The Cambridge Latin Anthology", Cambridge University Press, 1996.
1. The good life: Martial, Epigrams Book V, 20.
si tecum mihi, care Martialis,
securis liceat frui diebus,
si disponere tempus otiosum
et verae pariter vacare vitae,
nec nos atria nec domos potentum
nec lites tetricas forumque triste
nossemus nec imagines superbas;
sed gestatio, fabulae, libelli,
Campus, porticus, umbra, Virgo, thermae,
haec essent loca semper, hi labores.
nunc vivit necuter sibi, bonosque
soles effugere atque abire sentit,
qui nobis pereunt et imputantur.
quisquam, vivere cum sciat, moratur?
If, dear Martial (i.e. a friend of the poet of the same name) I were permitted (lit. it were permitted to me) to enjoy carefree days with you, if (we were permitted) to arrange our leisure time, and to have the time for a genuine life in each other's company, we should not be familiar with the entrance-halls nor the houses of the powerful, nor troublesome lawsuits and the gloomy bar, nor haughty busts, but riding, conversation, books, the Campus Martius, colonnades, shade, the (Aqua) Virgo, the baths, these would always be our haunts, these our pursuits. (But), as things are, neither of the two (of us) lives for himself, and each of us sees the good days flee away and vanish, (days) which pass away from us, and are charged to our account. Does anyone hesitate when he knows how to live?
2. The pleasures of country life: Horace, Epodes II, lines 1-8, 23-28.
beatus ille qui procul negotiis,
ut prisca gens mortalium,
paterna rurs bobus exercet suis
solutus omni faenore,
neque excitatur classico miles truci,
neque horret iratum mare,
forumque vitat et superba civium
potentiorum limina.
libet iacere modo sub antiqua ilice,
modo in tenaci gramine.
labuntur altis interim ripis aquae,
queruntur in silvis aves,
fontesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus,
somnus quod invitet leves.
Happy (is) he, who, far removed from (the cares of) business, as (one of) the ancient race of mortals, cultivates his ancestral fields with his own oxen, free from all usury; he is not roused as a soldier by a grim war-trumpet, nor does he shudder at the raging sea; and he avoids the Forum and the proud thresholds of the more powerful citizens. He is happy (lit. it is pleasing [to him]) to lie under an old holm-oak , now on the firm grass; meanwhile the streams glide by beneath steep banks, the birds sing (lit. complain) in the woods, and the springs murmur with trickling waters, even if this may invite gentle sleep.
3. Poetry and friendship: Catullus, carmen 50.
hesterno, Licini, die otiosi
multum lusimus in meis tabellis,
ut convenerat esse delicatos;
scribens versiculos uterque nostrum
ludebat numero modo hoc modo illoc,
reddens mutua per iocum atque vinum.
atque illinc abii tuo lepore
incensus, Licini, facetiisque,
ut nec me miserum cibus iuvaret
nec somnus tegeret quiete ocellos,
sed toto indomitus furore lecto
versarer, cupiens videre lucem,
ut tecum loquerer simulque ut essem.
at defessa labore membra postquam
semimortua lectulo iacebant,
hoc, iuncunde, tibi poema feci,
ex quo perspiceres meum dolorem.
nunc audax cave sis, precesque nostras,
oramus, cave despuas, ocelle,
ne poenas Nemesis reposcat a te.
est vemens dea. laedere hanc caveto.
Yesterday, Licinius, on a day of leisure, we played a lot (lit. much) on my writing tablets, as it had been agreed that we were frivolous men; each of us writing short verses, we played now in this metre, now in that one, exchanging (offerings) in turn amid jokes and wine. And I departed from there, Licinius, inflamed with your wit and charm, so that food did not please my wretched self, nor did sleep cover my eyes in slumber, but, wild with excitement, I toss and turn over the whole bed, longing to see the daylight, so that I might speak with you and so that I might be with you. But after my limbs, tired out by their labours, were lying half-dead on the bed, I composed this poem for you, dear (friend), from which you will perceive my passion. Now be careful (lest) you are presumptuous, and be careful (lest) you reject my pleadings, I beg (of you), (apple of) my eye, lest Nemesis demands retribution from you in turn. This goddess is inexorable. Beware of harming her.
4. Catullus invites a friend to dinner: Catullus, carmen 13.
cenabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me
paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus,
si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam
cenam, non sine candida puella
et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis.
haec si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster,
cenabis bene; nam tui Catulli
plenus sacculus est aranearum.
sed contra accipies meros amores,
seu quid suavius elegantiusve est:
nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae
donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque,
quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis,
totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.
You will dine well at my house, my Fabullus, in a few days, if the gods favour you, provided you bring with you a good and a great feast (and are) not without a dazzling girl, and wine and wit and all sorts of laughter. Provided, I say, you bring these things, my charming (friend), you will dine well, for the purse of your Catullus is full of cobwebs. But, in return, you will receive pure love, or something which is sweeter or more elegant: for I shall give (you) an unguent which the Venuses and Cupids gave to my girl, (and) which, when you smell (it), you will ask the gods to make you all nose, Fabullus.
5. A good place to find a girl: Ovid, Ars Amatoria, I, lines 89-100.
sed tu praecipue curvis venare theatris;
haec loca sunt voto fertiliora tuo.
illic invenies quod ames, quod ludere possis,
quodque semel tangas, quodque tenere velis.
ut redit itque frequens longum formica per agmen,
granifero solitum cum vehit ore cibum,
aut ut apes saltusque suos et olentia nactae
pascua per flores et thyma summa volant,
sic ruit ad celebres cultissima femina ludos;
copia iudicium saepe moratum meum est.
spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae;
ille locus casti damna pudoris habet.
But you go hunting especially in rounded theatres; these are places more productive of your wishes. There you will find what you love, what you can string along, and what you can touch once, and what you may wish to keep. As the multitudinous ant returns and goes through a long procession when he carries his usual food in his grain-bearing mouth, or as bees finding both glades and fragrant pastures fly through flowers and the tips of thyme, so the smartest woman rushes to popular plays; their sheer number often hindered my choice. They come to watch, they come to be watched themselves; that place involves the loss of a chaste (sense of) shame.
6. How ordinary people enjoy a festival: Ovid, Fasti, III: March 15: Ides.
Idibus est Annae festum geniale Perennae
non procul a ripis, advena Thybri, tuis.
plebs venit ac virides passim disiecta per herbas
potat et accumbit cum pare quisque sua;
sub Iove pars durat, pauci tentoria ponunt,
sunt quibus e ramis frondea facta casa est;
pars, ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis,
desuper extentas imposuere togas.
sole tamen vinoque calent annosque precantur,
quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt;
invenies illic qui Nestoris ebibat annos,
quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos.
The jolly festival of Anna Perennis is on the Ides not far from your banks, far-flowing Tiber. The people come and scattered everywhere over the green grass, drink and lie down with each person his own companion; some endure under the sky, a few pitch tents, (and) there are (some) by whom a leaf-covered shelter has been made from branches; others, when they have set up reeds in place of sturdy pillars, have placed their togas stretched out on top. Yet they are warm through the sun and the wine, and they pray for (as) many years as they take cupfuls and they drink by numbers; you will find (someone) who will drink down the years of Nestor (and someone) who has become the Sibyl through her wine-cups. And they sing whatever they have learned in the theatres, and they wave uninhibited at their words and, the mixing bowl having been set down, they join in coarse dances, and the smart girl-friend leaps around with streaming hair. When they return (home), they stagger and are a sight to the crowd, and the crowd along their route calls (them) blessed.
paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus,
si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam
cenam, non sine candida puella
et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis.
haec si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster,
cenabis bene; nam tui Catulli
plenus sacculus est aranearum.
sed contra accipies meros amores,
seu quid suavius elegantiusve est:
nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae
donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque,
quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis,
totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.
You will dine well at my house, my Fabullus, in a few days, if the gods favour you, provided you bring with you a good and a great feast (and are) not without a dazzling girl, and wine and wit and all sorts of laughter. Provided, I say, you bring these things, my charming (friend), you will dine well, for the purse of your Catullus is full of cobwebs. But, in return, you will receive pure love, or something which is sweeter or more elegant: for I shall give (you) an unguent which the Venuses and Cupids gave to my girl, (and) which, when you smell (it), you will ask the gods to make you all nose, Fabullus.
5. A good place to find a girl: Ovid, Ars Amatoria, I, lines 89-100.
sed tu praecipue curvis venare theatris;
haec loca sunt voto fertiliora tuo.
illic invenies quod ames, quod ludere possis,
quodque semel tangas, quodque tenere velis.
ut redit itque frequens longum formica per agmen,
granifero solitum cum vehit ore cibum,
aut ut apes saltusque suos et olentia nactae
pascua per flores et thyma summa volant,
sic ruit ad celebres cultissima femina ludos;
copia iudicium saepe moratum meum est.
spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae;
ille locus casti damna pudoris habet.
But you go hunting especially in rounded theatres; these are places more productive of your wishes. There you will find what you love, what you can string along, and what you can touch once, and what you may wish to keep. As the multitudinous ant returns and goes through a long procession when he carries his usual food in his grain-bearing mouth, or as bees finding both glades and fragrant pastures fly through flowers and the tips of thyme, so the smartest woman rushes to popular plays; their sheer number often hindered my choice. They come to watch, they come to be watched themselves; that place involves the loss of a chaste (sense of) shame.
6. How ordinary people enjoy a festival: Ovid, Fasti, III: March 15: Ides.
Idibus est Annae festum geniale Perennae
non procul a ripis, advena Thybri, tuis.
plebs venit ac virides passim disiecta per herbas
potat et accumbit cum pare quisque sua;
sub Iove pars durat, pauci tentoria ponunt,
sunt quibus e ramis frondea facta casa est;
pars, ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis,
desuper extentas imposuere togas.
sole tamen vinoque calent annosque precantur,
quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt;
invenies illic qui Nestoris ebibat annos,
quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos.
The jolly festival of Anna Perennis is on the Ides not far from your banks, far-flowing Tiber. The people come and scattered everywhere over the green grass, drink and lie down with each person his own companion; some endure under the sky, a few pitch tents, (and) there are (some) by whom a leaf-covered shelter has been made from branches; others, when they have set up reeds in place of sturdy pillars, have placed their togas stretched out on top. Yet they are warm through the sun and the wine, and they pray for (as) many years as they take cupfuls and they drink by numbers; you will find (someone) who will drink down the years of Nestor (and someone) who has become the Sibyl through her wine-cups. And they sing whatever they have learned in the theatres, and they wave uninhibited at their words and, the mixing bowl having been set down, they join in coarse dances, and the smart girl-friend leaps around with streaming hair. When they return (home), they stagger and are a sight to the crowd, and the crowd along their route calls (them) blessed.
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