O Varium Fortune - Corvus Corax, Ingeborg Schöpf, Klaus Lothar Peters

O varium fortune lubricum

Dans dubium tribunal iudicum,

Non modicum paras huic premium,

Quem colere tua vult gratia.

Et petere rote sublimia,

Dans dubia tamen, prepostere

De stercore pauperem erigens,

de rhetore consulem eligens.

Edificat Fortuna diruit;

Nunc abdicat quos prius coluit;

O slippery fortune

Giving doubt to the court of judges,

You don't have to pay a premium for this.

Whom thy grace wills to worship.

And ask for the highest things by rote,

Giving doubts, however, preposterous

raising the poor from the dung

choosing the consul of the orator.

Fortune builds up;

Now he abdicates those whom he formerly worshiped;