Horace, I.11

(to Leuconoe)

Because we cannot know our days to come,
Because we cannot know our time to go,
Give up the gods; they're deaf and blind and dumb.
They answer no one's prayers — with yes or no.

And leave the stars alone, in Babylon,
Where seers plot and magi calculate.
In Babylon, your fate will not be known
As well as here, and time is getting late.

But bear it out and time will never care.
No Jupiter will add a single day
Of snows to winter that is frozen where
It pounds in waves against those cliffs of clay.

Give up your hopes, the endless dreams you seek,
And pour the wine in strong white streams that run
Away with life — yes, even as we speak.
Now, seize the day before the night's begun.

Copyright © 2003 Len Krisak All rights reserved
from Even As We Speak
The University of Evansville Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission