An Amaranth envied a rose but the rose said it would rather have the immortal life of the Amaranth.
Accept your own fate.
Townsend version
An amaranth planted in a garden near a Rose-Tree, thus addressed it: “What a lovely flower is the Rose, a favorite alike with Gods and with men. I envy you your beauty and your perfume.” The Rose replied, “I indeed, dear Amaranth, flourish but for a brief season! If no cruel hand pluck me from my stem, yet I must perish by an early doom. But thou art immortal and dost never fade, but bloomest for ever in renewed youth.”
Rosa et Amarantus
Iuxta rosam enatus fuerat amarantus. Hanc ergo ille admiratur et beatam praedicat, quae aspectu adeo pulchra esset, hominibusque pariter ac diis honorata, non minus ob odorem quam formam. Cui illa, “Ego quidem, O amarante, ad breve tempus floreo vivoque, et licet me nemo decerpet, mea tamen species decora cito interit; tuae vero venustatis elegantia perennis semperque eadem.”
Perry #369
