The shortness of life prevents us from entertaining far-off hopes

They Are Not Long
by Ernest Dowson

Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam.

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate;
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses,
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.

The Latin is "The shortness of life prevents us from entertaining far-off hopes" from Horace, in the Odes (Odes 1.4.15).