European Elegies/Winter/Memento mori
38.MEMENTO MORI
Man and woman, meditate
On your unrelenting fate!
Though you love this fragile clay,
Hoping to prolong its day
In the light of Beauty's eyes
And her fleeting paradise,
All the prayers of passioned breath
Cannot stay the hand of Death.
On your unrelenting fate!
Though you love this fragile clay,
Hoping to prolong its day
In the light of Beauty's eyes
And her fleeting paradise,
All the prayers of passioned breath
Cannot stay the hand of Death.
No man's wisdom can avail
To complete the broken tale.
Death will steal our every grace,
Leaving nothing, fame or face;
Death comes soon to small and great:
No man is of such estate
Nor of such possessions vast
He may cozen Death at last.
To complete the broken tale.
Death will steal our every grace,
Leaving nothing, fame or face;
Death comes soon to small and great:
No man is of such estate
Nor of such possessions vast
He may cozen Death at last.
Though you linger here below,
Youth and Age alike must go.
All must die; your lives are vain;
Nothing of you shall remain.
Briefer is mortality
Than the winking of an eye.
Thus I view my life's distress
Gulfed in Death's forgetfulness.
Youth and Age alike must go.
All must die; your lives are vain;
Nothing of you shall remain.
Briefer is mortality
Than the winking of an eye.
Thus I view my life's distress
Gulfed in Death's forgetfulness.
From the Old High German (Anonymous).