Page:Essay on the Principles of Translation - Tytler (1791, 1st ed).djvu/166

the version of the two following stanzas has no more licence than what is justifiable:

Fortuna sævo læta negotio, et
Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax,
Transmutat incertos honores,
Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna.

Laudo manentem: si celeres quatit
Pennas, resigno qua dedit: et mea
Virtute me involvo, probamque
Pauperiem sine dote quæro.

 

Fortune, who with malicious joy
Does man, her slave, oppress,
Proud of her office to destroy,
Is seldom pleas'd to bless.
Still various, and inconstant still,
But with an inclination to be ill,
Promotes, degrades, delights in strife,
And makes a lottery of life.
I can enjoy her while she's kind;
But when she dances in the wind,

And