"Happy the Man" is one of John Dryden's most familiar short poems to the modern reader. And yet, this poem is not entirely of his own making. In addition to being a playwright and prodigious creator of unique poetic flights of fancy, Dryden began to establish yet another reputation in the later period of his life: that of England’s foremost translators of classical works of the past into the English language. “Happy the Man” is representative of this twilight era of Dryden’s long and illustrious career, as it is actually part of a comprehensive translation of the Odes of Horace, a major literary figure from the Roman Empire.
Published in 1685, Sylvae, or the Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies also includes translations by Dryden of works of other legendary literary names of the ancient past, including Ovid and Lucretius. Dryden’s “Happy the Man” technically, therefore, qualifies as a translation of Horace’s "Ode 29" from his third volume of "Odes." A translation into one language from another usually carries within it the connotation of an attempt to adhere as strictly as possible to the meaning of the original text. This, however, is not the approach undertaken by Dryden, and much of the commentary about "Happy the Man" has focused on the liberties Dryden took with the original text.
Dryden never made any attempt to convince readers he was being strictly faithful to the original. He openly admits that his approach was to create a translation of Horace’s original Ode 29 as it might have turned looked if Horace had been writing during Dryden's own present time, the late 17th century. The result—the poem “Happy the Man”—may not be a perfect word-for-word translation—which, of course, could be accomplished today in seconds by any of the instant translation sites on the web. Instead, it displays Dryden's own creativity, producing a new poem in its own right that has its own particular qualities. And this poem has become one of Dryden’s most beloved pieces of verse. Beyond that, it also remains one of the most concise and convincing arguments in favor of a stoic, cheerful, and optimistic philosophy of life.
