COUNTRY LIVING
Beatus ille qui procul negotiis,
ut prisca gens mortalium,
paterna rura bubus exercet suis
solutus omni faenore
Blessed he who far from business matters
ut prisca tribe of mortals.
the family farm bubus exercet suis
free from every worry about his loans
Ut is like or as. Priscus means ancient. It takes a feminine form here because it is describing gens, a feminine noun. “Does exercet have something to do with exercise?” you’re probably wondering. Well, yes it does. It means to exercise or train or (as here) to cultivate. So Ille exercet paterna rura bubus suis. Suus means his, and suis is the ablative plural, going with bubus.
Bubus is an excellent choice of word on Horace’s part. It means livestock, like bulls or oxen. But even in Horace’s time it was an old-fashioned word. So the idea of the paterna rura, stretching back into time immemorial, is mirrored in the choice of an old-fashioned rustic word.
Happy the man who, far from business cares,
Like ancient mortals, free from double-dealing
works with his own yoked pair his father’s fields.
This is a free translation, but I think you can see how it got there.