1. Unless you are extremely wealthy,
Beware of striving too hard for posterity,

2. If a man with money restrains his children,
Wishing to hasten their inheritance through their demise,

3. And if he gives in to their whims and desires,
He will find the river of wealth run dry from what it hemorrhaged,

4. Yet in any case, life ends
In barren extravagance and decadence,

5. As for the poor man, he may live off his son,
And if he is generous, he will have come upon a treasure,

6. So if you raise a son to old age,
You have walked without love into senility,

7. By God, duty, or progeny
That will provide for and bury your son,

8. I wonder at those who grieve because
They left behind no offspring to become

9. A tribe that, in their minds, remembers them,
Do not let it trouble you to be childless,

10. Thinking their existence would remind you,
Perhaps the memory of the childless man has vanished

11. With an article he wrote and the ink of his pen,
My grandfather passed away, I feel no heartache

12. At his loss, as he left nothing for me to look upon,
None mourn the deceased but their peers,

13. So their mourner remains, grieving his destiny,
When a generation and tribe are gone, none

14. Tell of them, nor is there anyone to tell of,
How many brilliant men died, leaving behind

15. Renowned wisdom among us, though none made them famous,
If we relay it, it is quoted from some of them,

16. And these some have departed, with no value,
So leave behind a deed - if the world does not remember you

17. It will be recorded on a parchment that concealed you.