The span of thy life is as five little days, / Brief hours and swift in this halting-place; / Rest softly, ah rest! while the Shadow delays, / For Time’s self is nought and the dial’s face. / On the lip of Oblivion we linger, and short / Is the way from the Lip to the Mouth where we pass— / While the moment is thine, fill, oh Saki, the glass / Ere all is nought! …
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
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.
As the fallow leaf of the tree falls to the ground, when its days are gone, even so the life of men (will come to its close); Gautama, be careful all the while! As a dew-drop dangling on the top of a blade of Kusa-grass lasts but a short time, even so the life of men; Gautama, be careful all the while!