Extract from Michael Mitchell's translation

Grimmelshausen's The Continuation of Simplicissimus

What is the life of man? Inconstancy its name,
When we think we're settled, we must go on again.
O most fickle state! Thinking we're at rest
All at once the Fall comes us to molest,
Just as Death comes. Read what such changeful ways
Have done to me in this chronicle of my days,
From which it can be seen that uncertainty
Alone is certain, wherever we may be.