Sol 5.6

  1. Salute the dwellings—is there any news of their people?

    In haunts of wild beasts, rain has watered their open courts.

  2. I have had my full share of sport with the young men,

    and I have been earnest, grown rich, and fallen poor.

  3. I ask God’s forgiveness for my earnestness and my play.

    Every man must surely take warning from another.

  4. Only a day I have not yet reached seems gentle,

    until it comes—even if age should carry me off.

  5. Why should people ask about my age, when already

    forty years have chastened me, and long has been my going to the water and back?

  6. When he saw the gray, his forelock had already flared,

    after youth’s sweetness, until the hair grew grizzled.

  7. From the first onset of life’s final stage, make moderation your aim,

    at the pace of a racer when the stakes have been raised.

  8. Whoever climbs a crooked slope must negotiate it carefully;

    for I speak the truth, and proudly.

Sol 5.6