Commentary Par XXVI 137-138 |
The recognition of the Horatian source (Ars poetica 60-63) of these verses begins with Benvenuto da Imola (DDP Benvenuto.Par.XXVI.124-129). Here is Horace, as cited, with a translation, by Singleton (DDP Singleton.Par.XXVI.137-138):
ut silvae foliis pronos mutantur in annos,
prima cadunt; ita verborum vetus interit aetas,
et iuvenum ritu florent modo nata vigentque.
debemur morti nos nostraque....
As forests change their leaves with each year's decline,
and the earliest drop off: so with words, the old race dies,
and, like the young of human kind, the new-born bloom and thrive.
We are doomed to death -- we and all things ours.
Imbach (Imba.1996.1), p. 212, notes that Dante has cited neighboring verses in the Ars (70-71) in Conv.II.xiii.10 (for earlier notice of this fact, beginning with Steiner [DDP Steiner.Par.XXVI.136-138], see the DDP.)