Sol 5.6

  1. Out of noble generosity I lower my hand beneath the hands of those who ask,

    so that the seeker of bounty may have the upper hand.

  2. I do not follow a kindness with reproach or hurt,

    even if I myself bestowed the world upon the one who asks for it.

  3. I regard seeking thanks from one on whom I confer a gift

    as mere commerce, and I count vaunting a favor an act of hate.

  4. Wealth is wealth, whether you hoard it or spend it;

    your share of it is only what wards off hunger and nakedness.

  5. So eat it, feed others with it, and seize its use for one brief span

    of Time—a span that consumes flesh, bone, and marrow.

  6. Calamities have already warned you, so pay them no heed;

    once calamities have given warning, no reprieve remains.

  7. How many a calamity has befallen me, at which I said:

    Would that, before it came, I had been a thing forgotten!

  8. If the days now feather my arrow-shaft, how often

    has it lain in the hand of Time, worn thin by its whittling.

  9. Whoever keeps company with the days grows used to their afflictions,

    until evil in their flavor seems to him like honey.

  10. The goal I seek has wearied even sleek, full-blooded steeds;

    long has this been so—what business have mongrel nags challenging me to race?

  11. Many a time my fist has closed full upon a lion’s mane;

    how then can a dog imagine that I shall be bested by it?

Sol 5.6