No one has endless fortune, eternal beauty: sooner or later death awaits us all.
[Nec forma aeternum aut cuiquam est fortuna perennis:
longius aut propius mors sua quemque manet.]Propertius (50–16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 2, Elegy 28, l. 57ff (2.28.57-58) [tr. Kline (2001), 2.28a]
(Source)
Beyond the debates of how to properly break the elegies into books, the text for this elegy about Cynthia's illness is fragmented, and various pieces have been grouped differently by various scholars (some even move just these two lines into a different elegy altogether).
(Source (Latin), 2.28c). Other translations:Yes, beauty dies, and wealth and honour fall;
come soon, come late, death comes at last to all.
[tr. Moore (1870), 3.20]For beauty dies and fortune flits away --
Death soon or late doth all that lives enthral.
[tr. Cranstoun (1875), 3.20]Neither beauty endures for ever, nor is any one’s prosperity lasting: either far or near, his death is awaiting every one.
[tr. Gantillon (1884), 3.20]Neither is anyone's beauty or fortune always abiding: far or near, his death is in wait for everyone.
[tr. Phillimore (1906), 2.28b]Neither beauty nor fortune abideth everlastingly for any; sooner or later death awaiteth all.
[tr. Butler (Loeb) (1912), 2.28a]No face can charm death and no fortune buy him;
all must fall victim to his greedy fire.
[tr. Carrier (1963), 2.28a]For no one does beauty or fortune last forever.
Nearer or farther off stands death
And waits for all.
[tr. Musker (1972), 2.28c]For none is beauty a lasting gift, for none lasts luck for ever: death sooner or later lies in store for all.
[tr. Goold (Loeb) (1990), 3.18]Beauty is not forever and no one's luck will last.
further or nearer one's own death is waiting.
[tr. Lee (1992), 2.28b]For none will beauty last, or fortune hold, and death
that's soon or late is end for all.
[tr. Holcombe (2009), 3.18]

