1. With all the calamities of fate you've borne,
And all the blows of fortune you have worn,

2. You've found the world to be sincere, not vain,
So do not let it fool you once again.

3. Do you not see how each day it warns
And then betrays at dawn and eve in turns?

4. How many has fate snatched from fortress high,
How many torn from behind stout walls to die,

5. How many who at dusk in splendor fared
Now lie buried beneath stones, unspared,

6. And many a brother walked the path ahead
Or yet will walk where you will walk or tread.

7. If you take pride, there is none to console
Save your own kin asleep in their dark hole,

8. The dead who died a ruined, wretched death,
Until the day of resurrection's breath.

9. Did you not see among them who sold his reign
For ruin - be he major man or mean,

10. Did not the hand of death pervade them all,
Commander and commanded, great and small?

11. Did they not change estate with estate,
And time with time meet alternately fate?

12. So joy leads not to any lasting joy,
Nor mirth to any mirth without alloy.

13. Reflect - did you e'er see fate let stay
Man rich or poor to see his thread's last day?

14. To which land did you voyage and there see
Tombs like mansions in their finery?

15. Their counsel you met before any joy,
Their warning ere any herald boy.

16. Did you not see a people die away
As years and months slid by in smooth array?

17. Then see their bones devoid of fleshy dress,
And see their skins devoid of consciousness,

18. Nay, see them also turned to dust, on which
Oblivion wanders with decay amerced.

19. Whom then has this world fooled, if not the blind
Of hearing nor of sight among mankind?

20. There is no home besides two for all breath -
Choose lasting bliss or searing, sheriff death.