The Vertumnus of Vanity

This little leaf that you are reading (you will read it, won't you, o young person?)
Contains, upon condition, words of salvation written down;
I wish this for you as a greeting of well-being from the beginning,
In which your guild referring to fellow students should also take an equal part.
I had to strive to ensure the writing was salutary,
As if it were a matter of this kind, above others, dear and worthy:
Such a thing, I trust, my young person, you should not despise;
Even though it belongs to the letters of warning.
Your error causes me pain. If I did not find a cause,
My admonishing pen would not strike you so perceptibly;
You wanted it, as one enamored of this circle of the earth;
Now the bond between the world and you is severed.
Alas! If you knew what you love! The evil world-pleasure practices
True-painted lies instead of sincerity;
Whoever loves the masked nature of the false-minded world
Loves deception under the guise of honesty.
It shows all kinds of gifts; yet the giving
Does not agree with the word; whoever trusts it, suffers the loss;
It proclaims, in a joking manner, a hundred-year life,
Whose final moment closes with misery.
When it beckons you, smiling, into the building of garden pleasures,
The path and track are covered by the art of evil hypocrisy;
It strews the crossroads with seeds of roses and carnations;
Yet many a sharp thorn hides among the roses.