Poem 1

I have come a herald from lovely Salamis,

  composing song, a cosmos of words, instead of speech

 Poem 2

Would that I were a Pholegandrian or a Sikinite,

  changing my fatherland of Athens.

For suddenly this would be said by men,

  “This is a man of Attica, the forfeiters of Salamis.”

 Poem 3

Let us go to Salamis, fighting for the lovely island

  ridding ourselves of terrible shame

 Poem 4

Our polis will never be destroyed by a dispensation

  from Zeus or the plans of the blessed immortal gods

for truly  a great-hearted daughter of a mighty father

  Pallas Athena holds her hands over it.

The citizens themselves by their foolishness desire

  to destroy the great city, persuaded by material goods,

and the leader of the people has an unbalanced mind, by which they are about

  to suffer many pains from great hubris.

For they do not understand how to restrain their greed

  nor to order the present festivities as a meal in calmness.

            .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  

  They grow rich, persuaded by their unjust deeds.

         .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

  Sparing the wealth of neither public nor sacred treasuries

with rapaciousness they rob from one another,

  and fail to guard the sacred foundations of Justice

who silently knows what is and what was.

  But, in time, retribution certainly comes.

And now this inescapable wound comes to the entire city,

  which falls swiftly into an evil slavery.

It awakens civil strife and sleeping tribal war,

  which destroys the beautiful youth of many;

and from its troubles the much-loved city is swiftly

  worn out, friendships destroyed in unjust factions.

These evils turn on the people; and of the poor

  many are brought into foreign lands,

sold, bound in miserable chains.

         .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

Thus the public evil comes to the house of each man.

  It jumps high over the court-yard fence, breaks down

the locked door, and finds any man for certain,

  even if he flees into the farthest corner of his bedroom.

These things my heart prompts me to teach the Athenians:

  how Lawlessness brings the worst evils to the city,

and Lawfulness manifests good order and everything perfect,

  and often puts chains on the evil-doers.

It smoothes what is rough; quells anger, dims hubris

  and shrivels the flowering bud of arrogant destruction.

It straightens crooked judgments, calms

  overbearing deeds, stops the deeds of civil strife,

and stops the anger of grievous strife.  It is by this

  that all things to men are perfect and reach their peak

 Poem 4a

I come to know, and many pains lie in my heart

   As I look on my eldest land of Ionia

declining

 Poem 4c

You, calm yourselves in your hearts,

  Who drag yourselves into an excess of material goods,

Moderate your over-bearing minds; for we will not

  be persuaded, nor will things turn out right for you

 Poem 5

To the people I gave as many privileges as belonged to them

  neither taking away their honor nor overextending it

And those who had power and were magnificent due to wealth,

  I saw to it that they had nothing shameful.

I stood with a powerful shield around both sides,

  Not permitting either to claim an unjust victory.

 Poem 6

In this way the people would follow their leaders best,

  neither allowed to overreach nor oppressed too much.

For excess breeds hubris, whenever great wealth follows

  a man whose understanding is flawed

 Poem 7

(For) in matters of great importance it is hard to please  everyone

 Poem 9

Snowstorm and hail come from a cloud

  and thunder comes from lightning,

But the ruin of the city comes from unjust men

  and the people fall into slavery by ignorance.

Having raised these men up it is not easy

  to restrain them later.  Now it is right to know all things <well>

Poem 10 

A short time will show the citizens whether I am crazy

with the truth coming out into the middle

 Poem 11

If by your own actions you have suffered these most grievous calamities

  do not place the blame for your fate on the gods.

You yourselves increased the power of these men, providing them with arms,

  and this is why you have dreadful slavery

Each one of you walks in the steps of a fox

  but all together your mind is empty.

You look to the tongue and words of a wily man

  and fail to see his deeds or the facts

 Poem 12

The sea is stirred up from a wind;  and if something does

  not move it,  of all things it is most calm

 Poem 13

Hear, O Muses, shining daughters of Olympian Zeus,

  of Memory, my prayer.

Grant me prosperity from the blessed gods, and always

  to have a good reputation to all men.

To be sweet to my friends, and bitter to my enemies,

  Respected by one, and a terror to the others

I want to have money, but to get it unjustly

  I am not willing; for justice surely comes later.

Wealth which the gods give is present to man,

  steadfast from the deepest foundation to the top,

but that which men honor by hubris and comes not with proper order,

  but persuaded by unjust deeds

does not follow willingly, but swiftly mixes with calamity.

  It begins from small start, as a fire,

At first it is minor, in the end devastating.

  For the works of hubris do not abide for mortals

But Zeus looks upon the end of all things, and suddenly

  as a spring wind scatters the clouds

which moves the depths of the swelling sea,

  ravaging the lovely works of man

along the wheat-bearing land, reaches the high seat

  in the heavens and makes the sky clear.

and the strength of the sun shines over the rich noble

 land, and there is not a cloud to be seen.

Such is the retribution of Zeus.  But not upon each thing

  as a mortal man does he become angry,

But always whoever is not clear all through, who holds evil

  in his heart, in the end surely becomes visible.

One man gets what he deserves right away, another later; some themselves

  flee, and escape the onrushing fate of the immortals

it comes surely sometime.  The innocents pay for the deeds

  or their children or their family thereafter.

We mortals, both base and noble, think we know,

  and each of us expects that things are going well;

Until experience hits us.  Then we wail forthwith, and even to this

  Gaping open-mouthed we are entertained by foolish hopes.

One man, oppressed by miserable disease

  thinks he will be healthy.

Another man, being cowardly, thinks himself brave;

  and the ugly man thinks he is handsome.

If a man is poor, savaged by poverty,

  he thinks he will surely possess great wealth

Men pursue values in different ways.  One fishes in the sea,

  using ships to bring home profit;

battered by the merciless winds,

  he places no regard upon life.

Another man plows the many-treed land for a year,

  working the curved plow for hire.

Another man, having learned the works of Athena

  and Hephaistos of many crafts, gathers a livelihood with his hands.

Another one, taught the gifts of the Olympiuan Muses,

  is an expert at the meter of lovely poetic wisdom;

King Apollo far-shooter makes another man a seer,

  he knows the evil coming upon man from afar,

if the gods are witnesses.  Surely neither augury

  nor sacred rites can protect against one’s allotted fate.

Other men, holding the many potions of Paion

  treat the sick; and there is no certain end to their efforts.

Often from a little pain comes a deep disease

  and he cannot be released from it by gentle remedies;

Another one, in the grip of a deep debilitating disease,

  he cures by placing his hands on him.

Moira brings good and evil to mortals,

  the gifts of the immortal gods may not be escaped.

There is risks in all actions, and no one knows

  how something, having started, will end up.

One man, attempting to do well but not seeing ahead

  falls into great and difficult calamity.

To another acting badly the god grants good luck in all

  things, releasing him from his folly.

Of wealth there is no limit revealed to man,

  for those of us who have the greatest standard of living

work twice as hard.  Who can be satisfied in every way?

  The immortals bring profit to mortals,

but calamity arises from these things, which, 

whenever Zeus sends retribution, passes from one man to another 

 Poem 14

No mortal is blessed, but all are wretched

  whom the sun looks down upon.

 Poem 15

Many evil men grow rich, and good men poor.

  But we will not exchange our virtue

for their wealth, since the latter abides forever,

  but money jumps from one man to another.

 Poem 16

It is most difficult to know the measure of wisdom, which

  alone holds the end of all things.

 Poem 17

The mind of the immortals is hidden in every way from men

 Poem 18

I grow old always learning many things,

 Poem 19

And now may you and your descendents inhabit this city

  ruling over Solioi for a long time.

And may violet-crowned Cypris send me away

  from your renown island unscathed in a swift ship.

May she bring favor and glory on this settlement

  and a good return to my homeland.

 Poem 20

But if you will be persuaded by me, take this out—

  Don’t begrudge me, because I think better than you—

and changing it, Ligiastades, sing this way:

  “May I meet my allotted death at eighty.”

 Poem 21

May death not come to me tearlessly, but may I leave my

  friends with sorrow and pain when I die,

 Poem 22a

Tell flaxen-haired Critias to listen to his father,

  for he will not be persuaded by an erring role-model.

 Poem 23

The man is happy who has dear boys, single-hoofed horses,

                hunting dogs and a friend in a foreign land;

 Poem 24

He is equally rich is he who has much silver

and gold, and wheat-bearing plains

and horses and mules, and and he with these things alone,

to live pleasantly in stomach and sides and feet,

and when this comes, a season for woman and child

and to live with proper youthful vigor.

These things are wealth to mortals; for no one

carries to Hades all their surpluses of money,

nor can he give a ransom and escape death,

deep disease, or encroaching evil old age.

 Poem 25

(until?) he falls in love with a boy in the flower of youth,

of desirable thighs and sweet lips.

 Poem 26

Now the deeds of the Cyprus-born, of Dionysus and of

  the Muses, are dear, which bring good cheer to men,

 Poem 27

A child, while still immature and foolish, grows a fence of

  teeth and loses them in the first seven years.

When the god completes the next seven years, 

  signs appear of oncoming puberty.

In the third period his body is growing, his chin get a

  down, and his skin changes color.

In the fourth hebdomad everyone is at best strength,

  and men show signs of manly virtue.

In the fifth season marriage comes to a man’s attention,

  and he looks for a line of sons to follow after him.

In the sixth the mind of man is most practiced in all things,

  nor does he desire to do foolish things.

In the seventh and eighth periods his mind and tongue

  he is at his peak, for fourteen years.

In the ninth years he is yet able, but his tongue and wisdom

  are weaker with respect to great excellence.

And if he comes upon a measured end in the tenth period,

  he would not have his fated death unseasonably.

 Poem 28

At the mouth of the Nile, near Canopus’ shore.

 Poem 29

Poets tell many lies

 Poem 30

Hearken to the officials, whether just or unjust,

 Poem 31

First let us pray to King Zeus son of Chronos

to bring good luck and renown to the statutes.

 Poem 32

                                                If I spared my fatherland

and did not grasp tyranny and implacable violence,

staining and disgracing my reputation,

I am not ashamed.  For in this way I think that I shall

be superior to all men.

 Poem 33

“This man Solon is a shallow thinker and a fool;

for the gods give him great goods, but he does not take them.

He throws a great net around his prey, but then does not draw it in,

He has neither good sense nor the will to use it.

If I came to power, I’d grab all I could,

tyrannizing the Athenians if even for one day only,

even if I and my family were later to be flayed into a wineskin.”

 Poem 34

They came as upon plunder, and held hope of riches,

and each one of them expected to find much wealth,

and that I, babbling smoothly, would show a rough disposition.

But they spoke foolishly then, and now, angry at me,

they all look askance as upon an enemy.

But it is not necessary.  For whatever I said, I have done with the gods,

I did not take pointless measures, nor did it please me

(to compel?) with the force of tyranny nor to subject

my rich fatherland to an equality of shares between good and evil men.

 Poem 36

I brought the people together for these reasons,

How did I stop before I accomplished them?

In the court of Time these things will be witnessed 

by the testimony of the great mother of the Olympian        

gods, the Black Earth, from whom I drew

up the boundary stones stuck in everywhere;       

earlier she was enslaved, now she is free.

Many men I brought up to their divinely-founded

fatherland, men sold, one illegally,

another legally, and others fleeing

by forcible necessity, no longer speaking an Attic-tongue,

as men wandering everywhere;

and others holding a shameful slavery,

now trembling before their masters,

I set them free.  By my own power,

fitting together force with justice,

these things I did, and I came through as I promised. 

And statutes alike to the base man and to the noble

fitting straight justice onto each man’s case,

these I wrote  But had another man than I taken the goad,

an evil-thinking and power-hungry man,

he would not have restrained the people.  For if I acquiesced

to whatever things were pleasing to my enemies,

and then shifted to what the other side thought,

this city would be widowed of many men.

On account of these things, making a defense in all directions,

I stood, as a wolf among many hounds.

NOTE: A RECONSTRUCTION OF FRAGMENTS 9 AND 12:

Snowstorm and hail come from a cloud

  and thunder comes from lightning,                 (Fragment 9.1-2)

The sea is stirred up from a wind;  and if something does

  not move it,  of all things it is most calm         (Fragment 12)

But the ruin of the city comes from unjust men

  and the people fall into slavery by ignorance.

Having raised these men up it is not easy

  to restrain them later.  Now it is right to know all things <well> (Fragment 9.3-6)