SORS hæc miserrima cecidit mortalibus!

Litem aut aperte concitant aut clam fovent: Quos et lacessit ictibus crebris dolor, Velut procella vexat ætheris plagas; Ægris et ante nil datum est levaminis

Quam vincla mors frigente solverit manu.

Qualis procella vita: sanguis æstuans
Insanientis impetum vincit freti,
Raptimque mens jactata motibus suis
Huc fertur illuc, ceu notis furentibus;
Actæque multis fluctibus lintri salis
Anchora quietem jacta in inferis parat.

Floris venustas vita; quæ gemmis nitet,
Frondisque fetu læta marcescit cito :
Cui veris autumnique tempestas brevis,
Primis ut horis noctis incerta est quies;
Tum pressa fatis asperis solum petit
Nascentis ævi quo jacent cunabula.

It is a dream-whose seeming truth
Is moralised in age and youth;
Where all the comforts he can share,

As wandering as his fancies are;
Till in a mist of dark decay
The dreamer vanish quite away.

It is a dial-which points out
The sunset as it moves about;
And shadows out in lines of night,
The subtle stages of time's flight;
Till all-obscuring earth hath hath laid
His body in perpetual shade.

It is a weary interlude,

Which doth short joys, long woes, include;
The world the stage, the prologue tears;
The acts vain hope, and vainer fears;
The scene shuts up with loss of breath,
And leaves no epilogue but death.

Ut dormienti somnium, vita est: pari
Ludunt inanes rerum imagines modo:
Amoenitatis quidquid afferat seni
Puerove, mentis error ut, fuit vagum;
Tum mersus atræ tabis in caligine,
Immistus auris, somnians evanuit.

Gnomon ut horas, vita sic solis vices
Signat cadentis, lineis et indicat
Labentis ævi subdolo fugam pede:
Tellus at obscurante pallio, tegit

Quo cuncta, corpus sic in æternum premit !----
-Actus ut inter fabulæ fastidia

Fert lusus olim, vita sic interserit

Momenta suavitatis, at luctus dies:

Cui scena, mundus; prologus heu! madens gena: Actus, inanes spes metusque discolor:

Efflata finem ponit anima fabulæ,

Nil et relictum est homini agendum ni mori.

IDEM.

QUÆNAM sors homini data est?

Rixas clamve palamve assiduas gerit:
Morbi, dira cohors, feram

Dant ægris speciem turbinis asperi,
Nec certa est requies prius
Quam vindex digito mors gelido tulit.

Ut cæli rabies, homo:

Estus sanguineus vi superat fretum :
Est et par Boreæ furor

Qui sævis animum motibus incitat;
Multo deinde ratem salo

Jactatam in tumulo destinat anchora!

Ut floris species, homo:
Gemmas exseruit, tum cito deperit:

Cui, somnus veluti vigil,

Ætas prima brevis, fluxaque serior:

Tum sors asperior premit :

Quo primum satus est decidit in solum !

Ut noctis simulacrum, homo:

Illudunt species et juvenem et senem.
Quidquid contigerit boni,

Mentis ficta velut, diffugit evagans.

Atræ tum nebulæ lues

Vanum surripuit vanaque somnia!

Ut solis varias vices

Gnomon occidui, sic homo mobili
Cursu temporis indicat

Lapsum seu tacitum, seu celerem fugam :
Umbris cuncta tegens humus
Corpus mox operit perpetuis suis!

Ut lusus piget et joci,

Inter si positi sint mora fabulæ,

Lasso sic homini cadunt

Raræ deliciæ, continuus dolor.

Plorans ingreditur, modo

Spes vanas peragit, sæpe metus leves,

Partes mors agit ultimas,

Actum est: exit homo: spiritus evolat.

[In the prior translation, 'varied' having been misread or misremembered for 'vainer', 'inanior' should occupy the place of 'discolor.']

D