1. Shall I be deceived as we were deceived before?
Such was that pleasant weather, weather of deceit

2. If a living man became well, he would find laid down
Amid hill-slopes which send forth the bleating of sheep

3. Picking sweet basil, making friends with the fox
While he grazes a straying lamb and pastures a weakling

4. Or I take refuge in a mountain which shelters the beasts
Of prey, and a mountain whither their rending-places cling

5. Or I make me a house not known of change and vicissitude
No blow falls on it, no commotion shakes it

6. Or I am maddened, and the flashings of madness
Speed on the neighbor from near, hastening in long bounds

7. Amid them my life was dainty, but it turned and withdrew
And my days among them in boyhood were lovely and vain