1. Where did the first ancestors settle,
Far from us, where we now dwell?

2. They passed quickly to the abode of eternity,
While we follow in their tracks.

3. This world was never a home for us;
The hereafter is the home.

4. It has warned us of its twists and turns
If only we would listen or understand.

5. One lengthens his hopes in it,
While death comes to the hopeful unawares.

6. The pleasures that passed brought delusion,
Had the horseflies been reasonable.

7. It distracted him from obeying his Creator,
While God neither falters nor neglects.

8. He manages the worries of man if they disappear,
And accepts the anxious when he returns.

9. Oh friend! What pleasure is there in a life
When we know not when death will befall?

10. It calls the loved ones from among us;
The first answers, then the next.

11. Oh struggling one, exerting yourself in pursuit of it!
Has drink and food deceived you?

12. Oh greedy one, desiring to accumulate it!
Wait! For tomorrow, you will be asked about it.

13. Do not weary yourself in it or grieve
For what is past, for the matter is still ahead.

14. What can we say before a Judge
Who judges justly and does not act unjustly?

15. What can we say to God at a station
Where tongues are silenced and speech fails?

16. When we are asked there about all
We say and do in this life?

17. What value is knowledge to the scholar
When triumph is only for the doer?