1. O lesson of time, you have passed the limit with us
Until we disdain to lament our past

2. So the plain, wherein were our strongholds, is buried
And the sea, wherein were our pearls, is lost

3. And from our glory decays what ambition upheld it
And from our renown diminishes what our builders constructed

4. And reckoned a sin upon us what ennobles us
And reckoned exaltation for us what debases us

5. So the strong prevailed over us in our decline
Though truth is loftier, but it cannot avail us

6. No pride that the mighty conquers his contender
But that the weak, like us, surrenders

7. O time, though you did not give our youth respite
Until you brought degeneration from our highs

8. You are the best nurturer of the ignorant
Like our ignorance that leaving prudence makes wretched

9. So increase our afflictions until you rouse us
To make life for us however you hurl us down

10. They drank resolve with the blood of their livers
While our past lies rusting in its scabbards

11. Their loftiness came not from their heights
Nor did our lowness come from our low valley

12. Our labors in all the world, our words and deeds
In every clime were walkers straight

13. When she who nurtured us became a wolf
Rome opposed, vying and contending with us

14. Until she smote us with overwhelming victory,
A hero of guile and might came to destroy us

15. Among Rome’s youth who were used
To the fires of war and mixed with our demons

16. They routed our armies, emptied our camps
Destroying our pulpits, attacking undeterred

17. And our troops were none but peasants
Who suffered the trial of formidable dragons

18. But by the turn of fate they overcame them
So none of us survived but a handful

19. Why after our city was pounded
And enemy rule stretched across our lands

20. Did we become confused and drunken with weakness
And our hands helped them in our crumbling?

21. So our abode and the universe its follower
Became their lodging and their clients our clients

22. By God, they did not overcome us where our hero remained
And met his death, and took hold of our forelocks

23. But they overcame us when our crisis crowned them
Our supporters and placaters

24. For it is not they who are our enemies but our natures
Which have become most hostile to us

25. For today Rome is the world's pinnacle,
Rivaling the earth in its entrenchment and establishment

26. While Athens is but a ruined bastion
Wherein lies prostrate our ignominy