8.
Πορεύομαι διὰ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν, μέχρι πεσὼν ἀναπαύσομαι ἐναποπνεύσας μὲν τούτῳ, ἐξ οὖ καθ̓ ἡμέραν ἀναπνέω, πεσὼν δὲ ἐπὶ τούτῳ, ἐξ οὗ καὶ τὸ σπερμάτιον ὁ πατήρ μου συνέλεξε καὶ τὸ αἱμάτιον ἡ μήτηρ καὶ τὸ γαλάκτιον ἡ τροφός: ἐξ οὗ καθ̓ ἡμέραν τοσούτοις ἔτεσι βόσκομαι καὶ ἀρδεύομαι: ὃ φέρει με πατοῦντα καὶ εἰς τοσαῦτα ἀποχρώμενον αὐτῷ.
I fare along, as indeed I must, through the things
provided according to Nature, until at last I shall
stop and rest, because I shall sink down. Then I
shall breathe out my life into this same air from
which every day I have inhaled my strength, and lay
me down on this very earth from which my father
collected the seed and my mother the blood and my
nurse the milk for me, the same earth which day
by day has afforded me meat and drink for so many
years, and now bears me up as 1 tread it and use it
to the full in so many ways.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.4
8.
My body and soul in this their singular time
Of love, require a trysting place—the earth;
And what a tryst! What pied and various clime—
Sweet flower-bed nooks, to lone white-swaddled dearth!
Thence did my childhood’s nurse obtain her milk,
Heart-made enheartening food; thence eke the forms
Were gleaned of linen, cotton, wool or silk
For kirtles loose or snug i’ the sun or storms.
Thence were my parents bred, and all my friends,
And seemly feasts with them of corn and wine;
And for my soul what harvest bright extends
Of beauteous scenes, diversifying line!
Glad will I march the earth while strength ’s to spare,
Then glad expire in earth-befriending air.
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