Brevity of Life

" They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,

Love and desire and hate:

I think they have no portion in us after

We pass the gate.



They are not long, the days of wine and roses:

Out of a misty dream

Our path emerges for a while, then closes

Within a dream".



Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam
(The brevity of life forbids us to entertain hopes of long duration: Horace,
Odes 1.4.15

Ernest Dowson