To laugh --- and know we only laugh to sigh,

To love --- and know that love may turn to hate,

To hope for what, per chance, may come too late,

To strive for what we never may possess,

To taste the joys whose dregs are bitterness,

To lose the faith we once were taught to price,

To gaze where Folly flaunts before our eyes,

To grasp delight, and find it empty air,

To wrestle with regret, to clutch despair,

To welcome falsehood in truth’s cunning guise,

To smile on those we secretly despise,

To plod and plan and strive and strive in vain,

At tasks that dim the eyes and clog the brain,

To weep and suffer in a world of strife; -

This is the pathos of our common life

Written by: Isidore G. Ascher B. C. L.

Read by: Vanessa Attard

Performed by: Lord Trebor, ARCHAEAN HARMONY