O Fortuna

O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem; egestatem, potestatem, dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata mihi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis et virtutis mihi nunc contraria; est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora cordae pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite! Fortunae plango vulnera stillantibus ocellis, quod sua mihi munera subtrahit rebellis. verum est, quod legitur fronte capillata, sed plerumque sequitur Occasio calvata. In Fortunae solio sederam elatus, prosperitatis vario flore coronatus; quicquid enim florui felix et beatus nunc a summo corrui gloria privatus. Fortunae rota volvitur; descendo minoratus; alter in altum tollitur; nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice caveat ruinam! nam sub axe legimus Hecubam reginam. O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty, power, it melts them like ice. Fate, savage and empty, you are a turning wheel, your position malevolent, vain health always dissolves, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game my naked back I bring to your villainy. Fate, in health and in virtue, is now against me, affection and defeat always enslaved. So at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating string; since Fate strikes down the strong, everyone weep with me! I bemoan the wounds of Fortune with weeping eyes, for the gifts she made me she perversely takes away. It is written in truth, she has hair in the front but in the back she is bald. On Fortune's throne I used to sit raised up, crowned with the multi-colored flowers of prosperity; however much I flourished happy and blessed, now I fall from the summit deprived of glory. The wheel of Fortune turns: I sink, debased; another is raised up; far too high up a king sits at the summit o let him fear ruin! for under the axis is written Queen Hecuba.