BOOK I, ODE 5.
I have ventured to model my version of this Ode, to some extent, on Milton's, "the high-water mark," as it has been termed, "which Horatian translation has attained." I have not, however, sought to imitate his language, feeling that the attempt would be presumptuous in itself, and likely to create a sense of incongruity with the style of the other Odes.
BOOK I, ODE 6.
Who with pared nails encounter youths in fight.
I like Ritter's interpretation of sectis, cut sharp, better than the common one, which supposes the paring of the nails to denote that the attack is not really formidable. Sectis will then be virtually equivalent to Bentley's strictis. Perhaps my translation is not explicit enough.
BOOK I, ODE 7.
And search for wreaths the olive's rifled bower.
Undique decerptam I take, with Bentley, to mean "plucked on all hands," i. e. exhausted as a topic of poetical treatment. He well compares Lucretius, Book I, v. 927—
"Juvatque novas decerpere flores,
Insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam
Unde prius nulli velarint tempora Musae."
'Tis Teucer leads, 'tis Teucer breathes the wind.