Classic Poem

Men like me might as well not be born in this world if men
like you turn into this, renouncing affection, looking on
without compassion, turning forgetful of your great duty
to protect humanity! Because my wife, my beloved, with her faultless
purity, yearns for me, and her frail life is in the balance,
it is impossible for her not to think of me! She grieves,
her suffering so intense it deserves to be sung as she wonders
whether death that knows no order has fixed on me out of turn,
and whether I am gone forever so that she should wish for death.
And because of this I take my leave, going away from here to lighten
the lingering pain of my wife! Leader! May your life be a long one!
But look there now! As I move on with a sad heart, my poverty
precedes me and I can do no more against it than the fortresses,
well guarded and hard to assault,
of your enemies on their front lines can do against you!