Time & Brevity
Book IX, 359
Translated by W. R. Paton (1916–18) · From The Greek Anthology (Loeb, vol. III, 1917)
What path of life should one pursue? In the market-place are broils and business difficulties, and at home are anxieties ; in the country there is too much labour, and at sea there is fear. In a foreign land there is apprehension if you possess anything, and if you are ill off, life is a burden. You are married? You won’t be without cares. You are unmarried ? You live a still more lonely life. Children are a trouble, and a childless life is a crippled one. Youth is foolish, and old age again is feeble. There is then, it seems, a choice between two things, either not to be born or to die at once on being born.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Codex Note
Also attributed to Plato the comic poet.
Cite this poem
MLA
Posidippus. “Book IX, 359.” Translated by W. R. Paton. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/posidippus/7/.
Chicago
Posidippus. “Book IX, 359.” Translated by W. R. Paton. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/posidippus/7/.
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