James Vila Blake, Sonnets from Marcus Aurelius 26

26. 

Τῇ πάντα διδούσῃ καὶ ἀπολαμβανούσῃ φύσει ὁ πεπαιδευμένος καὶ αἰδήμων λέγει: δὸς ὃ θέλεις: ἀπόλαβε ὃ θέλεις. λέγει δὲ τοῦτο οὐ καταθρασυνόμενος, ἀλλὰ πειθαρχῶν μόνον καὶ εὐνοῶν αὐτῇ. 

To Nature that gives all things we possess, and again takes them away and back to herself—to this Nature he who is schooled well and disciplined and reverential, speaks, and says: Give what you will, take back what you will. But this he says not in any boastful or emboldened way, but only in obedient spirit and good will to Nature. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.14 

26. 

Have thy soul reverent; then to Nature say: 

Out of thine ampleness give me what thou wilt. 

Certes ’tis large, replenishes the day, 

And wakes my soul to an unenvious lilt. 

Of all the pomps of stars, meteors and lights, 

Suns, moons and followers in th’ eternal span, 

Or here plains, meads, great waters, mountain heights, 

Partake I as all do—own them none can; 

And having given, take what thou wilt away, 

Be ’t health, or power, place, gold, or other pelf. 

Thy gifts’ be such the largest meeds must stay, 

Nor canst thou e’er withdraw from me thyself. 

I say not this, our Lord, defiantly, 

But with a glad content, obediently. 

IMAGE: El Greco, View of Toledo (c. 1600)