O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?[Heu, Fortuna, quis est crudelior in nos
Te Deus? Ut semper gaudes illudere rebus
Humanis!]Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 2, # 8 “Ut Nasidieni,” l. 61ff (2.8.61-63) (30 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]
(Source)
When "disaster" befalls the dinner party of Nasidienus (Rufus), Nomentanus tries to snap him out of a funk by philosophically / melodramatically bemoaning how Fortune treats humanity.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Some mourne and blame their sorie fate, why Fortune shoulde be suche,
That they suche blouddes shoulde nothinge have, and others overmuche.
[tr. Drant (1567)]Fortune our Foe, thou art a scurvy Puss!
Ah what a cruel Vixen th' art! ah how
Do'st thou delight to mock us here below!
[tr. I. W. Esq.; ed. Brome (1666)]Unlucky Chance what God is so unkind,
Thou lov'st to break the measures Man design'd.
[tr. Creech (1684)]Fortune, thou cruelest of powers divine,
To joke poor mortals is a joke of thine.
[tr. Francis (1747)]Ah cruel Fortune, foe to human bliss!
Invidious power, it seems thy sole delight
All our enjoyments in the bud to blight.
[tr. Howes (1845)]Alas! O fortune, what god is more cruel to us than thou? How dost thou always take pleasure in sporting with human affairs!
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]O Fortune, what divinity so cruel against us as thou? What joy to thee 'tis ever to frustrate the plans of men!
[tr. Millington (1870)]Ah Fortune, what divine power is more cruel towards us than thou! How thou delightest ever to make sport of human affairs!
[tr. Wickham (1903)]Ah, Fortune, what god is more cruel toward us than thou! How thou dost ever delight to make sport of the life of man!
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1926)]Oh, Fortune, what god
Is more cruel to us than you are! You always have fun
Making fun of mankind!
[tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]Ah, Fortune! What god more cruel to us than you?
You always like to play around with mankind’s hopes!
[tr. Fuchs (1977)]Ah, Fortune! Is there a crueler god?
How you love to toy with us, playing with our lives!
[tr. Raffel (1983)]What god,
O Fortune, is more cruel toward us than Thou?
How you rejoice in upsetting man’s hopes!
[tr. Alexander (1999)]Fortune, most cruel of all the gods, what
would you do for laughs without us humans?
[tr. Matthews (2002)]Shame on you Lady Luck!
No other god is so cruel. What pleasure you get from mocking
the plans of men!
[tr. Rudd (2005 ed.)]O Fortune, what deity treats us more
Cruelly than you? How you always delight in mocking
Human affairs!
[tr. Kline (2015)]

