Luis Vaz de Camões (1572)

No mar tanta tormenta, e tanto dano,
Tantas vezes a morte apercebida!
Na terra tanta guerra, tanto engano,
Tanta necessidade avorrecida!
Onde pode acolher-se um fraco humano,
Onde terá segura a curta vida,
Que não se arme, e se indigne o Céu sereno
Contra um bicho da terra tão pequeno?

Richard Fanshawe (1655)

By Sea; how many Storms, how many Harms,
Death in how many sev’ral fashions drest!
By Land; how many Frauds, how many Allarms,
Under how many wants sunk, and opprest!
Where may a fraile man hide him? in what Arms
May a short life injoy a little Rest?
Where Sea, and Land, where Guile, the Sword, and Dearth,
Will not all arm ‘gainst the least worm o’th Earth?

William Julius Mickle (1776)

O piteous lot of man’s uncertain state!
What woes on Life’s unhappy journey wait!
When joyful Hope would grasp its fond desire,
The long-sought transports in the grasp expire.
By sea what treach’rous calms, what rushing storms,
And death attendant in a thousand forms!
By land what strife, what plots of secret guile,
How many a wound from many a treach’rous smile!
Oh where shall man escape his num’rous foes,
And rest his weary head in safe repose!

Thomas Moore Musgrave (1826)

What perils, numberless and imminent,
Ceaseless assail Life’s mutable career!
Ev’n where we center all our fondest hopes,
They vanish like an unsubstantial dream.
At sea, what storms, — what losses, — man endures!
What cruel deaths the waves for him prepare!
On land, what sanguinary wars, — what guile, —
What wretchedness, — what misery, — prevail!
To what asylum shall frail man retreat? —
Where pass secure the narrow span of life,
That placid Heaven, unruffled, may not launch
Its thunderbolt against so poor a worm?

Edward Quillinan (1853)

What shocks at sea! What storms around him roar!
The spectre Death, how oft before his eye!
What rage, what strife, what deadlier guile, on shore,
And oh, how much abhorred necessity!
Where shall frail man, though he the world explore,
Find out some nook, some charter’d sanctuary,
Where Heaven will let him live his little term
In peace, nor launch its thunder at a worm!

Thomas Mitchell (1854)

At sea such hardships, and such perils great,
Death near at hand so various and so rife;
On land such warfare, and so much deceit,
Such horrible necessity for strife!
Where may frail mortals find a safe retreat?
Where can they hold securely this short life?
Where are they not in arms, serene Heaven in storms,
Against such poor diminutive earth-worms?

John James Aubertin (1878)

At sea, so many storms and loss so great,
So often death arrayed and seeming sure,
On land, so many wars, so much deceit,
And so much wretched misery to endure!
Where shall weak man discover a retreat,
Where may he deem his short life’s hour secure?
That calm Heaven’s might and anger may not fall
Upon a worm of earth so weak and small!

Robert Ffrench Duff (1880)

On sea, incessant toils, and dreadfil storms! —
Impending death in every step appears —
On land, what horrid woes in all their forms,
What cunning wiles entrap, what endless fears!
Gaunt misery, and want provoke our tears:
Where can the hapless wretch for refuge stray,
To linger out his span of cheerless years?
When shall the mighty Heavens their thunder stay,
Or cease to crush a worm — this helpless child of clay?

Richard Francis Burton (1880)

By sea such tempests, such sore injury,
with Death so often showing near and sure!
By land such warfare, such foul treachery,
so much of curst necessities t’ endure!
Ah! where shall weary man take sanctuary,
where live his little span of life secure?
and ‘scape of Heav’n serene th’ indignant storms
that launch their thunders at us earthen worms?

James Edwin Hewitt (1881)

So much of storm and havoc on the sea,
Before the vision looming death so rife!
So much=of war and guile upon the lea,
So much of harsh inevitable strife!
Oh whither can a fragile mortal flee,
Where shall he hold secure his fleeting life?
That arm and wax not wroth the Heaven serene
Against a creature of the earth so mean?

Leonard Bacon (1950)

At sea by such rough storms and griefs forespent!
So many a moment when Death stands alert!
Ashore such strife and treacherous intent,
Where horrible necessity can hurt!
How can weak man escape the harsh event,
And how misfortune from brief life avert,
Where calm Skies rage not nor take arms alway
Against so mean a creature of the clay?

Landeg White (1997)

On the sea, such storms and perils
That death, many times, seemed imminent;
On the land, such battle and intrigue
Such dire, inevitable hardships!
Where may frail humanity shelter
Briefly, in some secure port,
Where the bright heavens cease to vent their rage
On such insects on so small a stage?