1. You have made the path from you to you
So departure did not trouble the travelers

2. There is no stopping before departure
Nor returning after departure

3. The path of perdition is not rugged
To exhaust the walker or prolong

4. The youth passes as does his vigor
Yet some things there remain unchanged

5. You, life, transform rapidly
You, the cistern that never refills

6. Your voice is sweet to every ear
Your face beautiful to every eye

7. To us you were, in the beginning, a mother
To us you became, in the end, a ghoul

8. The day for the living is short
The night for the fallen is long

9. Appearance and after appearance, disappearance
Rising and after rising, setting

10. Some of you battles others for triumph
You are the shields and you are the swords

11. Courage lies only in the heart's guidance
Intellect lies only in the mind's message

12. When life is wanting, the youth and elders contest it
With swords that split shields in two

13. And between gazes, despite their nearness
The face of truth is veiled from view

14. Truths that have confounded every mind
And confounded what minds can construe

15. Is there not some flash somewhere
That makes every quest seem vain?

16. When a man despairs of his hopes
His desisting cannot be disdained

17. My life after ruin will come to
But to what end will it come to?

18. I walk by night in thickening darkness
By the dim light of my mind's candle

19. Nature in her course has laws
From which she will not deviate

20. The cosmos entire is but a prisoner
And these laws but fetters that captivate

21. Some sing praises of the crow's glory
But from where does a crow have glory?

22. I saw your features this morning dissolved
What then can be deemed authentic?

23. I sent my eyes to look at what was near
But they returned to me weak and spent

24. I have no question left but my companions
Though great has been my questioning of them

25. The digger of the final resting place
Will find rest, visitor, in it

26. Our generation will remain in its ignorance
And so generation after generation

27. My misery will last a lifetime
If it goes, then it goes

28. But when death comes for me one day
To it, for my life, I'll be miserly

29. In my advanced age, I wish
My life would be prolonged