1. If people reward others for their deeds
While they're alive, the reward is sweet,

2. Praising the dead in their tombs is useless,
For after them, praise is for names only.

3. Can letters disdain praising a dead man's name?
In it there is still his soul's beauty and light.

4. Do you appreciate your fathers while they live,
Or do you dishonor them, ungrateful and blind?

5. Do you appreciate mere letters with no life,
While the owner is without a "B" or "Y"?

6. So appreciate and speak well of the living today,
That your children may benefit from your words.

7. Statues honor the dead who lie in the ground,
While their knowledge benefits only the living.

8. The dead need no food or water from the living,
So do not neglect the living, tending the dead.