Laudator Temporis Acti

Greek Anthology 10.118 (anonymous, translated by W.R. Paton):

How was I born? Whence am I? Why came I here? To depart again? How can I learn aught, knowing nothing? I was nothing and was born; again I shall be as at first. Nothing and of no worth is the race of men. But serve me the merry fountain of Bacchus; for this is the antidote of ills.

Translated by J.W. Mackail:

How was I born? whence am I? why did I come? to go again: how can I learn anything, knowing nothing? Being nothing, I was born; again I shall be as I was before; nothing and nothing-worth is the human race. Come then, serve to me the joyous fountain of Bacchus; for this is the drug counter-charming ills.

Verse translation by J.H. Merivale:

Whence was I born, and how?
  How was I born, and why?
Alas! I nothing know,
  But, born, that I must die.
From nothing I was born;
To nothing must return.
The end and the beginning
  Of life is nothingness—
Of losing, or of winning,
  Of pleasure, or distress.
Then give me wine at least;
There's nought left but to feast.

Verse translation by George Burges:

How born, and where, and why? To go I came;
  And knowing nothing, nothing learn I can.
Nothing I was when born; and still the same
  Nothing shall be. Such is the race of man.
The pleasure-loving cup of Bacchus fill;
'Tis the sole antidote for every ill.

The Greek:

πῶς γενόμην; πόθεν εἰμί; τίνος χάριν ἦλθον; ἀπελθεῖν;
  πῶς δύναμαί τι μαθεῖν, μηδὲν ἐπιστάμενος;
οὐδὲν ἐὼν γενόμην πάλιν ἔσσομαι ὡς πάρος ἦα·
  οὐδὲν καὶ μηδὲν τῶν μερόπων τὸ γένος.
ἀλλ᾽ ἄγε μοι Βάκχοιο φιλήδονον ἔντυε νᾶμα·
  τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι κακῶν φάρμακον ἀντίδοτον.

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