Sol 5.6

  1. The beloved died as though he had never been born;

    and the lover found solace as though no one had been lost.

  2. Grief is brought into being by the beloved, just as he himself arose;

    then, when it wears away as he did, it does not outlast him.

  3. O you whom we see today overcome by weeping,

    tomorrow we shall see even feigned tears fail you.

  4. Suppose an ember of your sorrows lies within your heart—

    have you ever seen—woe to you—an ember that did not die out?

  5. How the weeping eulogist labors over his lament,

    while the dead man knows nothing of a eulogist’s wail.

  6. The dead man knows nothing of the state of one standing;

    nor does the living know the state of one laid to rest.

  7. If this grief endured, the mourner would meet his Lord

    in the grave before the interred beloved had decayed.

  8. Whoever vanishes from the eye will soon vanish from

    the heart: such is his bond in the world of sight.

  9. If mourners did justice to themselves, they would weep

    in sorrow for themselves, awaiting the appointed hour.

  10. Can the mourner feel safe from the onslaught of his own death

    in the interval between one repeated wiping of his tears and the next?

  11. Why have I burdened myself with counsel, posing as a guide,

    in a matter where a guide’s own counsel was lacking?

  12. Clauses I have brought in parenthetically, where they have no

    syntactic force; thus they have not taken the place of a single word.

  13. I had longed to see my heart become as

    I wished; but my heart is not in my hand.

  14. The heart is like the eye if you indulge it;

    but if you resist it, it is like solid rock.

  15. Ah, this death has no pity for one

    who weeps, nor bends tenderly toward one under threat.

  16. How many hearts it has split, how many eyes made weep;

    and how many hearts it will split throughout the ages!

  17. Death is not good; however,

    were it not for death, the state of things would not be good.

  18. Had death not existed from of old, humankind would have devised

    a death—and people would have died by that new invention.

  19. If those slain by the might of their fellow man arose,

    the broad expanses of the wilderness would narrow beneath their multitude.

  20. Killing had already begun before death itself,

    when death by natural causes had not yet begun.

  21. Indeed, I have found the lion better in disposition

    than this species—the rebellious, speaking creature.

  22. One day, some of humankind will kill all of it,

    while lions kill creatures unlike themselves when they attack.

  23. Everyone fears death when its appointed hour comes,

    yet we see him toil for wealth as though immortal.

  24. This follows the rule of madness; but only

    the madman has now become unshackled.

  25. Friend, cast off heedlessness and awake!

    Do not gaze upon this world with a diseased eye.

  26. A long journey lies through barren, perilous wastes;

    woe, then, if you travel without provisions.

Sol 5.6