Chapter IX: Story on Preparing for Death

Fate the reins of a mortal's existence had shorn ;On his dying, another his collar had torn.Thus said a beholder, with intellect clear,When the weeping and wailing arrived at his ear:"At your tyrannous hands, had the dead been allowed,He'd have riven away from his body the shroud;Saying, ' Writhe not so much out of sorrow for me,That provision I've made a few days before thee !Perhaps you've forgotten your own dying day,Since my death makes you wounded and weak in this way!'"An observer who earth on a dead body strews,Not for it, but himself, his heart fervency shows.At the child's disappearance, which went back to clay,Why weep? he came pure, and he pure went away!Be careful and pure! you in purity came;For returning polluted to dust, is a shame.To the leg of this bird you must now tie a band ;Not when it has wrested the string from your hand.In the place of another, a long time you've sat ;Another will sit in your place, for all that!Whether famed as a wrestler or swordsman complete,You can take with you only your white winding-sheet.If an ass of the desert should fracture the noose,And he sticks in the sand, why, his feet are not loose!So long, too, a powerful hand you can wave,As your feet do not sink in the dust of the grave.Do not fasten your heart on this world for a home!For a walnut remains not, when thrown on a dome.Since yesterday went, and to-morrow's not yours ;Make the most of the moment that life still ensures !