animula vagula blandula

animula vagula blandula
hospes comesque corporis
quae nunc abibis in loca
pallidula rigida nudula
nec ut soles dabis iocos

(Little sweet wandering soul, body's guest and companion, in what pale, stark, naked places will you go now, where you won't joke as you like?)

The Roman emperor Hadrian wrote this poem as an epitaph. The title is drawn from Marguerite Yourcenar's Mémoires d'Hadrien, one of the greatest historical novels.

Pequeña y dulce alma vagabunda, invitada del cuerpo y compañera, a qué pálidos, desolados, desnudos lugares marcharás ahora, donde bromearás como solías?