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—Photo by Robert Lee Haycock, Antioch
VOICE OF A DISSIPATED WOMAN INSIDE A TOMB,
TALKING TO ANOTHER WOMAN WHO PRESUMED TO ENTER
TALKING TO ANOTHER WOMAN WHO PRESUMED TO ENTER
A CHURCH WITH THE PURPOSE OF BEING SEEN AND
PRAISED BY EVERYONE, WHO SAT DOWN NEAR A SEPULCHER
CONTAINING THIS EPITAPH, WHICH CURIOUSLY READS:
You fool yourself and live a crazy day
or year, dizzy with adventures, and bent
solely on pleasures! Know the argument
of rigid doom and find a wise way.
Consider that here, buried in the earth,
a dazzling and commended beauty lies,
and all live things are nothing, dust, and worth
less than the nothing of your life and lies.
Consider that when rigid death is come,
it laughs at beauty and discernment, and
what seems entirely certain fades in doubt.
Learn from this tomb what you will soon become,
and live more prudently till that command
is heard: the end which ends with no way out.
—Sor Violante do Céu, Portugal (1601?-1693)
CONTAINING THIS EPITAPH, WHICH CURIOUSLY READS:
You fool yourself and live a crazy day
or year, dizzy with adventures, and bent
solely on pleasures! Know the argument
of rigid doom and find a wise way.
Consider that here, buried in the earth,
a dazzling and commended beauty lies,
and all live things are nothing, dust, and worth
less than the nothing of your life and lies.
Consider that when rigid death is come,
it laughs at beauty and discernment, and
what seems entirely certain fades in doubt.
Learn from this tomb what you will soon become,
and live more prudently till that command
is heard: the end which ends with no way out.
—Sor Violante do Céu, Portugal (1601?-1693)
____________________
—Medusa
For more about Violante do Céu, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violante_do_Ceo
