“Eheu Fugaces”

Alas, Postumus, Postumus,
The fleeting years drip, and piety brings no delay
To wrinkles, nor impending old age,
Nor death indomitable

My friend, even if you sacrifice
Three hundred bulls every single day,
You will not please tearless Pluto
Who overwhelmed triple-sized Geryon and Tityos

With a mournful wave, alas insurmountable
For us all, whatever role we play in the world
Whether we are royalty
Or poor colonists

In vain we dodge cruel Mars
And shattering waves of the raucous Adriatic,
In vain we shrink away from the Southern Autumn
Wind harming our bodies

Dark Cocytos wandering
With languid flow must be seen, and Danaus’ daughters,
And Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, notoriously
Condemned to long labor

Your world must be relinquished and your home
And your pleasant wife, and not one of these trees
You tend will follow you, their brief master,
Save the burial cypress

And your proud heir: he will drain your Caecuba,
Preserved with a hundred nails, and stain your marble floor
With a wine more superb than that served
At the feasts of the Pontifices.”