Friday, January 09, 2015
The Human Condition
Simonides, fragment 520 (tr. David A. Campbell):
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Men's strength is slight, their plans impossible; within their brief lifetime toil upon toil; and death hangs inescapable over all alike: of death an equal portion is allotted to good men and to bad.
ἀνθρώπων ὀλίγον μὲν
κάρτος, ἄπρακτοι δὲ μεληδόνες,
αἰῶνι δ᾿ ἐν παύρῳ πόνος ἀμφὶ πόνῳ·
ὁ δ᾿ ἄφυκτος ὁμῶς ἐπικρέμαται θάνατος·
κείνου γὰρ ἴσον λάχον μέρος οἵ τ᾿ ἀγαθοὶ
ὅστις τε κακός.
