CONSOLATIO PHILOSOPHIAE 3 metrum 3 TRUE WEALTH
Boethiustr. James Harpur


Quamuis fluente diues auri gurgite
non expleturas cogat auarus opes

oneretque bacis colla rubri litoris
ruraque centeno scindat opima boue,

nec cura mordax deserit superstitem
defunctumque leues non comitantur opes.


Rich people may enjoy their streams of gold,
which always fails to satisfy their greed,

stoop down from heavy strings of Red Sea pearls
and have a hundred oxen plough their fields

yet worries still devour them while they live
and fickle wealth goes nowhere in the grave.
Published in PN Review, vol. 34 no. 1

Transl. Copyright © James Harpur 2007








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