1. Though distance parts loved hearts, love will not fade,
True hearts when love is gone will feel betrayed.

2. My heart called to my dear ones, though the tide
Tossed foaming billows round my vessel's side,

3. That shone at dawn, lit by the smiling sun,
As to the shore my bounding barque did run.

4. Life is hard, as I have come to learn,
Yet harder still is happiness to earn.

5. Greed and ambition are what make men sad,
With hope, even grief will make the heart glad.

6. When time weighs heavily and no relief
Appears to ease our agonized grief,

7. And in despair you see your tears run dry,
The fount of youth drained to mud walled by,

8. Hear the night bird wail beneath the gloom,
See the sword dripping with blood of doom,

9. Take leave of those you love, abandon care,
So souls for comfort turn in vain despair.

10. Say, did you rub your sleepless eyes in pain,
While in your heart love's fires rose again?

11. A voice within has warned that death draws near
Say, did you gaze at stars with anxious fear,

12. And call on ghostly shades that moan and flee,
Now red, now wan, dim veiled in cloud they be?

13. Say, did you search for beauty through the town?
In shameless wanton found in brothel known.

14. Her painted cheeks allured you to admire,
You fled the serpent ready to spit fire.

15. Say, did you wander joyous with your friends,
Playing 'mid gardens, pleasure never ends,

16. Quaffing the wine cup as the singer sang,
Bewitching songs that set your heart aflang.

17. Lost in delights, you laughed Babylon's fill,
Lulled by the strains from an enchanted thrill,

18. Till when the wine fumes filled your dizzy brain,
You wept like children in their tearful pain.

19. As though a hand wrote on your heart's dark wall,
Leaving your wanton ways, the scroll did scrawl.

20. Spurn false desires, let thought make wide your heart,
From gaudy world and its illusions part,

21. And frown when you behold a smiling face,
For mirth, like joy, may lie about its grace.