Thanks to the Gods - Akira the Don, Марк Аврелий

I had good grandparents

A good mother and father

A good sister

Good teachers

Good servants

Relatives, friends

Nearly everything good

And that I never lost control of myself with any of them

Although I had it in me to do that

And I might have

Easily

But thanks to the gods

I was never put in that position

And so I escaped the test

I was never put in that position

And so I escaped the test

That I wasn’t longer raised by my granddad’s girlfriend

I didn’t lose my virginity too early

And didn’t enter adulthood until it was time

Hell, I put off

That I had

Someone

As a ruler and father

Who could keep me from arrogance

To live in a palace without body guards

Without fancy dresses or torches or statues or such like show

That you can live much like a regular person

Not remiss in action or careless a ruler

When carrying out official obligations

That I had the kind of brother I did

One whose character challenged me to

Improve my own

One whose love and affection

Enriched my whole life

That my children weren’t born

Stupid or physically deformed

That I wasn’t more talented

In rhetoric or poetry

They could have consumed me

If I had seen progress

I might never have given them up

That I conferred on the people who brought me up

The honors that they seemed to want early on

Instead of putting them off

Since they were still young

With the hope that I’d do it later

That I knew Apollonius

And Rusticus

And Maximus

That I was shown clearly and often

What it would be like to live as nature requires

Thanks to the gods

They did all they could

Through their gifts

Their help

Their inspiration

To ensure

That I could live

As nature demands

Thanks to the gods

They did all they could

Through their gifts

Their help

Their inspiration

To ensure

That I could live

As nature demands

And if I’ve failed

It’s no one’s fault but mine

Cause I didn’t pay attention

To what they told me

To what they taught me

Practically, step by step

That my body has held up

For so long through such a life

That I never laid a finger

On Benedicta

Or Theodotus

Even later

I was overcome by passion

I recovered

Even though

I often quarreled with Rusticus

I never did nothing that I regretted later

And though my mother died young

She spent her last years with me

And if I ever wished to help a man in need

I was never told that I had not the means

That I was never put in that position myself

Of having to take something from somebody else

That I have the wife I do

Obedient

Loving

Humble

That my children had competent teachers

For the remedies shown me in dream

When I was coughing blood

When my head was spinning

(Spinning)

(Spinning)

When I had an inclination

To philosophy

I didn’t fall into the hands of any

Sophist

That I didn’t waste my time

On writers of histories

Or in the resolution of syllogisms

Or occupy myself about the investigation

Of appearances in the heavens

For all these things require the help

Of the gods and fortune

Thanks to the gods

They did all they could

Through their gifts

Their help

Their inspiration

To ensure

That I could live

As nature demands

Thanks to the gods

They did all they could

Through their gifts

Their help

Their inspiration

To ensure

That I could live

As nature demands