Chi Lu asked about serving the spirits of the dead. The Master said, "While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits?" Chi Lu added, "I venture to ask about death?" He was answered, "While you do not know life, how can you know about death?"
季路問事鬼神。子曰、未能事人、焉能事鬼。敢問死。曰、未知生、焉知死。
So teach us to number our days, That we may get us a heart of wisdom.
Before long, alas! this body will lie on the earth, despised, without understanding, like a useless log.
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Every soul shall have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object (of Life): For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception.
Acquire perfect knowledge of the Law! why do you not study it? It is difficult to obtain instruction in it after this life. The days (that are gone by) will never return, nor is it easy a second time to obtain human birth. See, young and old men, even children in the mother's womb die. As a hawk catches a quail, so (life) will end when its time is spent.
He turned to his wife and said, "O dame, / The harvest of December is not as that of July; / Though they be dead or though they be living, / Are they not equally visible to the eyes of the heart? / I behold them clearly before me, / Wherefore should I disfigure my countenance like you? / Though they have gone forth by revolution of fortune, / They are with me still, playing round me. …