To Eat Or Not to Eat

Cenes, Canthare, cum foris libenter, clamas et maledicis et minaris. Deponas animos truces, monemus: liber non potes et gulosus esse. Although you’re glad to be asked out, Whenever you go, you bitch and shout And bluster. You must stop being rude: You can’t enjoy free speech and food. Ben che tu goda di mangiare fuori, sei maledico, blateri, e minacci. Guarda un po’ di non esser così truce: se sei goloso, non puoi esser libero.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 9, IX
English translation by James Michie
Italian translation by Giuseppe Lipparini

Two men watch a monitor lizard on the grass in Lumphini Park, Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: James D. Morgan/Getty Images.