Mortality. Marcus Aurelius 2.12
Marcus offers a meditation on death that reminds me of Qoheleth. <Greek>.
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Πῶς πάντα ταχέως ἐναφανίζεται, τῷ μὲν κόσμῳ αὐτὰ τὰ σώματα, τῷ δὲ αἰῶνι αἱ μνῆμαι αὐτῶν. οἶά ἐστι τὰ αἰσθητὰ πάντα καὶ μάλιστα τὰ ἡδονῇ δελεάζοντα ἢ τῷ πόνῳ φοβοῦντα ἢ τῷ τύφῳ διαβεβοημένα· πῶς εὐτελῆ καὶ εὐκαταφρόνητα καὶ ῥυπαρὰ καὶ εὔφθαρτα καὶ νεκρά, νοερᾶς δυνάμεως ἐφιστάναι. τί εἰσιν οὗτοι, ὧν αἱ ὑπολήψεις καὶ αἱ φωναὶ τὴν εὐδοξίαν παρέχουσι. τί ἐστι τὸ ἀποθανεῖν, καὶ ὅτι, ἐάν τις αὐτὸ μόνον ἴδῃ καὶ τῷ μερισμῷ τῆς ἐννοίας διαλύσῃ τὰ ἐμφανταζόμενα αὐτῷ, οὐκέτι ἄλλο τι ὑπολήψεται αὐτὸ εἶναι ἢ φύσεως ἔργον· φύσεως δὲ ἔργον εἴ τις φοβεῖται, παιδίον ἐστί· τοῦτο μέντοι οὐ μόνον φύσεως ἔργον ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ καὶ συμφέρον αὐτῇ. πῶς ἅπτεται θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος καὶ κατὰ τί ἑαυτοῦ μέρος καὶ ὅταν πῶς ἔχῃ διακέηται τὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τοῦτο μόριον.
How swiftly all things vanish! Bodies pass away into the world, and memories into eternity. How fleeting all our feelings, whether they entice us with pleasure, drive us with frightful toil, or prove to be false illusions (†), wild rumors without substance. How simple the power of our understanding, how contemptible, how sordid, corrupt, and defunct. What are these people, risen to glory on the strength of their conceit and loud voices? What is death? If anyone only look at it keenly, with the least measure of attention, the veils of illusion that surround it fall away, revealing that it is nothing but a work of nature. And whoever fears the work of nature is a child, still young in understanding. This death is not only a work of nature; it is essential to her. Let each man receive his doom as a gift from the gods, whenever his time comes, however the last moment finds him.
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(†) Cynic philosophers regularly refer to the lack of mutual coherence between the natural world and our mental worlds with the word typhus (τῦφος), which we inherit in English as indicating a particular kind of fever brought on by bacterial infection. The philosophers conceive their work here as curing the fever of human imagination, which supposes it can do all things, break all limits, avoid all consequence, remain forever a child.