| O Fortuna velut luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite! |      | O Fortune, like the moon changing state, always growing or decreasing; Detestable life now difficult and then easy deceptive sharp mind; poverty power it melts them like ice. Fate—monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, stand malevolent, vain is the help fade to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game, my bare back I bring to your villainy. Fate, in health and in virtue, is now against me, driven on and weighted down, always in the vale of Angaria. So at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating string; since Fate strikes down the strong, everyone weep with me! |
Carmina Burana The Goliards 1227.
