Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916.
‘Alas! alas! when in a garden fair’Moschus (fl. c. 150 B.C.)
Translated by M. J. Chapman
From the Elegy on the Death of Bion
From the Elegy on the Death of Bion
A
Mallows, crisp dill, or parsley yields to fate,
These with another year regerminate;
But when of mortal life the bloom and crown,
The wise, the good, the valiant, and the great
Succumb to death, in hollow earth shut down
We sleep—for ever sleep—for ever lie unknown.