Sol 5.6

  1. O reproacher, if my lifeless body should come to lie in a barren waste,

    far away, with my companion and my kinsman distant from me,

  2. you will see that whatever I kept, I was never its master,

    and that whatever I spent was truly my allotted share.

  3. And consider a man with camels who supposes them his own,

    a constant companion to hardship in watering them and unremitting toil:

  4. they set out at dawn, while another master goes forth driving them,

    and stones and the black mire of a grave are given him in exchange.

  5. She urged amassing and withholding, though her own soul

    asserts against time’s vicissitudes a claim that will prove false.

  6. How many a generous man, sorely visited by losses, have we seen—

    trustworthy, free with both hands, lavish in giving!

  7. I saw them pass away before me, though I had thought to myself

    and said, “I shall last until they witness my end—and you too pass away.”

  8. She said, “Come, listen: let us admonish you with a sermon,

    poor man.” “We have heard; now speak—and hit the mark.”

  9. “Yet you will never speak the truth, nor are you fit for it;

    so shame upon you—what a speaker and preacher you are!”

Sol 5.6