1. For long my living was bliss and joy,
For long I dragged robes behind me.

2. For long I obeyed my ignorance and lust,
For long with my friends I was given to wine.

3. For long I loved diversion; then it cast me down, smitten.
For long have I built lofty palaces,

4. Where do you seek? Do you wish for the clouds?
You are but in the valley of death.

5. If death smites you there, it has struck home.
O builder of edifices for the hours to lay low,

6. Build what you will; all shall encounter decay.
Did you feel secure against death who refuses

7. To allow you be?—and against Time with its changes?
Do you see this world with the eye of insight?

8. The world is but a mirage of the desert.
The world is but a covering that, once lifted, disappears.

9. Or it is like the errors you note in a fog.
The flame of death among the people glows hot,

10. Each day increasing the heat of its blaze.
The world is but trial and deceit,

11. Sorrow and gloom leading to sorrow again.
No sage continued to relish living in it

12. Unless he had in it what he relished.
O man refusing to leave frivolity and youth in it,

13. And building lofty mansions and edifices,
And structures above structures piled high!

14. And finding ugly things to be beautiful,
Choosing for sin only to commit it!

15. You are in a house with death in it,
Subduing even the necks of kings.

16. The world at the end offers only loss
To all who live, except for death.

17. Death only negates life; just as old age
Negates the youth that went before.

18. I see the world bringing harm and woe
To all who live in it, and them it scorches.

19. While man is strong and well, his day
Summons him and he answers.

20. Yet death is a momentous thing;
It empties mansions and leaves them ruined.

21. What life in it, for those who live in it, lasted?
What life in it has not abated?

22. What kingdom was there for a people before us,
That they did not ruin and snatch away?

23. The herald of death cries out,
“Pack up and prepare your provisions!”

24. The Merciful made the lives of all creatures
Among themselves prey for each other.

25. Would that I knew! Will my tongue avail me
When I am asked and must make reply?

26. Would that I knew if my hand will be given
My book, or if it be on my left!

27. Forgive the people! For I see them now
As though they were wolves, all but a few.

28. Do good among them, do it abundantly,
Yet seek no reward from them for doing it.

29. And when you fear poverty, then pray
To Him who grants gracious gifts abundantly.