Ah ! fair and lovely bloom the flowers of youth;
On men and maids they beautifully smile:
But soon comes doleful eld, who, void of ruth,
Indifferently afflicts the fair and vile;
Then cares wear out the heart: old eyes forlorn
Scarce reck the very sunshine to behold —
Unloved by youths, of every maid the scorn —
So hard a lot God lays upon the old.
Mimnermus (620 BC) Greece
Translated by John Addington Symonds
Source: Greek poets in English verse by William Hyde Appleton, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1893
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