2.21.2008

Juvenal says...

Still, if you must have something to pray for . . .
. . .then ask
For a sound mind in a sound body, a valiant heart
Without fear of death, that reckons longevity
The least among Nature's gifts, that's strong to endure
All kinds of toil, that's untainted by lust and anger,
That prefers the sorrows and labours of Hercules to all
Sardanapalus' downy cushions and women and junketings.
What I've shown you, you can find by yourself: there's one
Path, and one only, to a life of peace--through virtue.
Fortune has no divinity, could we but see it: it's we,
We ourselves, who make her a goddess, and set her in the heavens.

(Satire X, lines 354-366; trans. Peter Green 1967)

No comments: