Social Commentaries
Fragment XLI: Learn, Kurnus, learn to bear an easy mind
Translated by John Hookham Frere (1842; Bohn 1856) · From Fragments of Theognis (Frere, 1842)
Learn, Kurnus, learn to bear an easy mind ;
Accommodate your humour te mankind
And human nature ;—I take it as you find!
A mixture of ingredients, good or bad,
Such are we all, the best that can be had:
The best are found defective; and the rest,
For common use, are equal to the best.
Suppose it had been otherwise decreed—
How could the business of the world proceed
Fairly examin’d, truly understood,
No man is wholly bad nor wholly good,
Nor uniformly wise. In every case,
Habit and accident, and time and place,
Affect us. ’Tis the nature of the race.
Cite this poem
MLA
Megara, Theognis of. “Fragment XLI: Learn, Kurnus, learn to bear an easy mind.” Translated by John Hookham Frere. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/41/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Fragment XLI: Learn, Kurnus, learn to bear an easy mind.” Translated by John Hookham Frere. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/41/.
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