Inscription from Tralles (1st century AD), now in Copenhagen, National Museum of Denmark
(Inv. 14897), Greek text from Josef Stauber,
Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten, Bd. I: Die Westküste Kleinasiens von Knidos bis Ilion (Stuttgart; B.G. Teubner, 1998), pp. 207-208 (number 02/02/07) =
Werner Peek,
Griechische Vers-Inschriften, Vol. I:
Grab-Epigramme (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1955), p. 609 (number 1955), tr. Robert A. Rohland,
Carpe Diem: The Poetics of Presence in Greek and Latin Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2023), p. 2:
I, the stone, am an image. Seikilos placed me here as
long-lasting sign of immortal remembrance.
As long as you're alive, shine (?), don't be sad at all;
life is short, time asks for its due.
Seikilos, son of Euterpes; during his lifetime.
εἰκὼν ἡ λίθος | εἰμί· τίθησι μὲ | Σείκιλος ἔνθα
μνήμης ἀθανάτου | σῆμα πολυχρόνιον.
ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου· |
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ | λυποῦ·
πρὸς ὀλί|γον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν, |
τὸ τέλος ὁ χρό|νος ἀπαιτεῖ. |
Σείκιλος Εὐτέρ(που)· | ζῇ.
Translation of the song portion by M.L. West,
Ancient Greek Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 301:
While you're alive, shine, man,
don't be the least bit blue.
Life's for a little span;
Time demands its due.
Image of the stone from Stauber, p. 207 (I can't find an image at
https://natmus.dk/):
Modern musical notation by Armand D'Angour, in Tom Phillips and Armand D'Angour, edd.,
Music, Text, and Culture in Ancient Greece (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 69:
Performance by David Creese at
https://soundcloud.com/info-1488/david-creese-sings-seikilos.
