1. We desire survival, though troubles lie in wait,
yet no man's wish decides his final fate.

2. He who feels safe from the days, through their breadth, is mad;
through their narrowness, faces hardship instead.

3. What days won't bring a man news, lessons time has honed?
He sees increase brings loss - loss comes with all he's grown.

4. Strange how convinced you are by this world that all ends;
yet in it you still seek eternal life, my friend.

5. See how all tillage and offspring eventually die,
though some stand, and some are harvested - all fade and dry.

6. Many ages, my friend, have withered and collapsed,
yet you'll fade as those long ages faded in the past.

7. Many now lie beneath the earth, who built upon it,
establishing castles, cities, monuments of grit.

8. Erasers of men - time wipes names away,
none remain recorded on his page for aye.

9. Death has causes seen and unseen, fleeting, staying;
Time makes promises and threats, betraying, delaying.

10. O Lord of decay! All things new are bound to waste;
That which makes all things new is new until replaced.