This world is but for a day or two, br A fleeting dream, like a garden in bloom. br This beautiful life is a honey trap, br One careless step and you are doomed. br Life offers you an empty plate br Death lies in wait with a fishing net. br With twenty dozen weights and countless parts, br This fishing net, you cannot take apart. br Each fish shall, by its whiskers, be caught br When herded around, all, in a lot. br For whom did I build such a magnificent house br And save pots of silver and gold? br My clothes would rot, in their rusted chests and br Grass‘d grow on my bones. br If my dwelling caves in, I build again br A house that is finer than the one before. br But none can hold, when the bones grow old, br This body would’nt last forevermore. br The walls would crack, the beams would break, br The worms would chew up the pillars. br Who’d keep back The prince of Death, br When cometh He, The Great Leveler.