Living
Maxims of Theognis: Poverty most of all things
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
Poverty most of all things breaks down a noble man, more even, O Cyrnus, than hoary age and hot-ague. And it in truth he ought to flee, and to cast it even into the deep, deep sea, and down steep rocks. For every man subdued by poverty can neither say nor do anything, but his tongue is bound. One ought then, Cyrnus, to seek alike over earth and the broad back of the sea for a riddance from hard poverty. To die, dear Cyrnus, is better for a poor man than to live worn down by hard poverty.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Codex Note
Literal prose translation by the Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856), printed as prose: the plain-sense companion to Frere’s verse version. Banks’s hyphenated compounds are his own.
Cite this poem
MLA
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Poverty most of all things.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/137/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Poverty most of all things.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/137/.
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