Who can hold out against your hostility?
Who can boast about their worldly success
Unless they enjoy your favor,
Earthly god, supporter of life, you Health?
The stanza tells of the importance of health to an individual. This is because without good health, even wealth is worthless.
While your energy and excellent strength
(As far as was pleasing to your honour)
Reigned in me and was my sovereign,
Then I was well, then I felt no distress,
Then I was stuffed with gladness of spirit,
And now my body is empty and bare
Of joy and full of troubling misery,
All poor in health and rich in tough times
The stanza shows the parallelism between good health and ill health. The persona says how when he was healthy he was full of life and happy and when he got ill he became desolate and empty.
My hardship and intense pain every day
So greatly troubles and torments me
That I can now undoubtedly remember what you are,
And what benefit there is in following your teachings.
If I had understood your power a long time ago,
The persona is regretting his past actions that have led to his sickness. He is wary because he did not follow the teachings on how to maintain good health and that had the consequence of making him gravely ill.
For it would be very foolish for someone
To knowingly offend their lord or friend,
In case the force of his hostility
Overpowers the fool and makes an end of him
The persona in the poem is saying how in his youth he neglected taking care of his health. He likens this to a fool offending his master and getting punished for it.
O Youth, alas, why won’t you submit
And bow down to the rule of Reason?
Since Reason is the true straight line
Which leads people to happiness
The persona is urging youth and the force of youthfulness to heed to reason. Failure to heed to reason might lead to a destructive future. The persona further advises that using reason leads to happiness in the future
