James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 7

7.  

Ὥσπερ εἴ τίς σοι θεῶν εἶπεν, ὅτι αὔριον τεθνήξῃ ἢ πάντως γε εἰς τρίτην, οὐκέτ̓ ἂν παρὰ μέγα ἐποιοῦ τὸ εἰς τρίτην μᾶλλον ἢ αὔριον, εἴ γε μὴ ἐσχάτως ἀγεννὴς εἶ: πόσον γάρ ἐστι τὸ μεταξύ; οὕτως καὶ τὸ εἰς πολλοστὸν ἔτος μᾶλλον ἢ αὔριον μηδὲν μέγα εἶναι νόμιζε.

Suppose a god said to you, you shall die tomorrow, or anyway the day after. You would not further think it much matter whether it were tomorrow or the next day, unless you be very low-minded. For how little is the difference. In like manner deem it to be no great affair whether your time fall in the last of very many years, or rather tomorrow. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.47 

7. 

Conceive a whisper certified thine ear, 

Some deity above thy shoulder bending, 

That thou must leave thine earthly summit here, 

And all thy many matters put to ending; 

And say to-morrow ’twere, or the next morrow, 

Appointed for thine expedition brave, 

Thou begging the later day with cries and sorrow; 

Wert not thou then indeed a sorry knave? 

Then reason: For beauty’s sake be ’t not my song 

To traverse years, but this day to live stoutly; 

For beauty hangeth not upon how long 

I look, but in what way and how devoutly. 

Grandeur ’s not bulk, naught long that ends at all; 

That now I live, this sole doth me appall.