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Quæstus Amoris [18]


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36 ↓
Quæstus Amoris.translation
XVIII.
August. Eccl. ca.3. Luc.12.
OCuras hominum, o quantum est in rebus in-
ane! Recordare o Anima, nobilitatis tuæ
quid est quod cum tanto desiderio te impellit ad
terrena conquirenda? quæ est ista auiditas con-
cupiscentiæ tuæ? semper ne rapies & numquam
satiaberis? nec Deum timebis, nec hominem re-
uereberis? nec patri parces, nec matrem agnosces?
nec fratri obtemperabis, nec amico fidem serua-
bis? viduam opprimes? pupillum inuades? testi-
monium falsum proferes? quæ est ista, o homo,
mentis tuæ insania? nescis quod cum diu parcè
vixeris, opibusque familiæ congerendis æuum
consumpseris, quot filios, totidem cadauer exspe-
ctantes vultures circum te habens, tandem exspe-
ctato fine supremum diem claudes, ac personato
fletu nudus in terram abderis. ficut egressus es nu-
dus de vtero matris tuæ sic reuerteris, & nihil au-
feres de labore tuo. quid ergo proderit tibi quod
laboraueris in ventum omnibus diebus vitæ tuæ?
Stulte hac nocte anima tua repetitur à te, quæ
autem parasti, cuius erunt?
De Imperatore Seuero memoriæ proditum est:
eum, cum sensim mortem sibi imminere sensisset,
linteum, in quo tumulandus erat, per castra conto
leuatum circumferri, & per præconem edici ius-
sisse; en! ex amplissimis regni opibus, quod vnicum
Seuerus Imperator secum auferet. translation

[36a] ↓

Quod capis, alter habet. translation

Il aduient bien au plus fin,
De chasser pour son voisin.

37 ↓
Conqueste de l'Amour.
XVIII.
La chasse des mortels est tant plus difficile,
Que ce qu' ilz ont chassé, leur estant inutile,
Frustre leur vain espoir, de sa possession,
De quoy sert la trauail? que vaut la chasse mesme,
Si ce que l'on à prins cōme ce que l'on ayme,
Change aussy tost de main, par la succession.

Tan bien sucede en Amor
Que lo que vno caça, y toma:
Otro llegue y sé lo coma.

Soo sietmen dickwils dat hy vaert/
Die voor sijn vrienden goet vergaert.

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36

[36a]

37

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Translations

The searching of love.
O, the worries of mankind, what a lot of futility there is in our affairs. Take to heart, dear soul this question: what of your nobility is it that drives you to acquire earthly things with so much desire? Will you always go out grabbing and will you never have enough? And will you not fear God and have no respect for man? Will you not spare your father, will you not acknowledge your mother? Will you not obey your brother, nor will you be true to a friend? Will you subdue the widow? Will you attack the orphan? Will you bring forward false testimony? What is that insanity, o mankind, of your mind? Do you not know that when you have lived frugally for a long time, and have spent a lifetime gathering wealth for your family, having as many vultures around you as you have sons, eagerly waiting for a corpse, you will close your final day with the end they have waited for, and under a travesty of mourning will be hidden naked in the ground. As you came forth naked from your mother's womb, so you will return and you will take no fruit of your labour with you. Therefore, what good will it do to you, that you toil on your belly all days of your life? Fool, in this night your soul is taken back from you, but your earnings, whose will they be?
There is a history about the emperor Severus1. When he had noticed that slowly his death was drawing near, he ordered that the linen shroud in which he was to be buried be raised on a pike and carried round the camp and to have a herald announce: "Look at this: the only thing that from the most ample means of his realm the emperor Severus will take with him".
What you grasp for, another already has.

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Literature


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    Iconclass

    Cupid and a girl are watching a ferret chasing a rabbit from its burrow into the net of a hunter

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    Notes

    1
    The anecdote about Septimius (or Alexander?) Severus is possibly from the Historia Augusta.