I don't like a generalwho towers over the troops,lordly with elegant locksand trim mustachios.Give me a stumpy soldierglaringly bowlegged,yet rockfirm on his feet,and in his heart a giant.

I want to fight youjust as when I am thirsty I want to drink.

Now, I have no desire for poetry or joy,yet I will make nothing better by crying,nor worse by seeking good foods and pleasure.

O my soul, my soul—you are mutilated helplessly by this blade of sorrow. Yet rise and bare your chest,face those who would attack you, be strong, give no ground.If you defeat them, do not brag like a loudmouth,If they beat you, don't run home and lie down to cry.Keep some measure in your joy—or in your sadness duringcrisis—that you may understand man's up-and-down life.

No man, Aisimides, who bows to the mud-slingingmob has ever been capable of profound pleasures.

If you irritate the wound, Perikles, no manin our city will enjoy the festivities.These men were washed under by the thudding seawaves,and the hearts in our chest are swollen with pain.Yet against this incurable misery, the godsgive us the harsh medicine of endurance.Sorrows come and go, friend, and now they strike usand we look with horror on the bleeding sores,yet tomorrow others will mourn the dead. I tell you,hold back your feminine tears and endure.

One big thing I understand:I know how to spit back with black venomagainst the man who wrongs me.

A life of doing nothing is good for old men,especially if they are simple in their ways,or stupid, or inane in their endless blabberas old men tend to be.

Let brawling waves beat his shipagainst the shore, and have the mop-haired Thracianstake him naked at Salmydessos,and he will suffer a thousand calamities as he chews the bread of slaves.His body will stiffen in freezing surfas he wrestles with slimy seaweed,and his teeth will rattle like a helpless dog,flopped on his belly in the surge,puking out the brine. Let me watch him grovelin mud—for the wrong he did me:as a traitor he trampled on our good faith,he who was once my comrade.