Memento Mori

Angles on Mortality

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, annals compiled in Old English initially in the reign of Alfred the Great (late 9th century), includes an epitaphic notice for William the Conqueror (d. 1087). Although written in prose, it has a strongly poetic feel, and sounds wonderful in Old English. I’ve translated it into quasi-Shakespearean rhyming iambic verse as follows.

Alas, how false is worldly wealth, how fleet
Our lives! This man, ere now a mighty king
And lord of many lands, now seven feet
Of earth confines. Who formerly did fling
About him raiments sewn with gems and gold,
Now lies attired by dirt, and dust, and cold.

The Anglo-Saxon, with straight translation, reads (for this I acknowledge the account on Twitter under the name Wylfcén):

Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale (lines 1987-91) takes a slightly different angle on the inevitability and relief of mortality:

“Just so there never lived a man," he said,
"In all this world, but must be sometime dead.
This world is but a thoroughfare of woe,
And we are pilgrims passing to and fro;
Death is the end of every worldly sore."

In the original Middle English:

Right so ther lyvede never man," he seyde,
"In al this world that somtyme he ne deyde.
This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo,
And we been pilgrymes passynge to and fro.
Deeth is an ende of every worldes soore."