If midst Rome you wish to see Rome, pilgrim, <br />Tho in Rome naught of Rome might you see, <br />Behold the walls' ring, the theatres, temples <br />And ruptured pillars, to rubble all turned, <br />Rome be these! Mark how the corpse of a city <br />So strong still past fortune's pomp exudes; <br />Subduing a world, herself the city subdued <br />Lest yet more to subdue might there be. <br />Today in broken Rome, Rome unbroken <br />(A substance in its shadow) lies entombed. <br />Within all's changed; alone past change <br />Tiber remains, that to sea runs mixed with sand. <br />See what Fortune plays: 'tis wasted away, <br />What was unmoving; what moved, yet remains.<br /><br />Mikolaj Sep Szarzynski<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/epitaph-to-rome/
