1. Life in this world is uncertain and unknown to mortals. It is difficult, brief, and bound up with suffering.

2. There is no means by which those who are born do not die. Having reached old age, there is death; such is the nature of living beings.

3. Just as ripe fruits are in constant fear of falling in the morning, so mortals who are born are in constant fear of death.

4. Just as all earthen vessels made by a potter end in being broken, so is the life of mortals.

5. Both the young and the old, both fools and the wise, all fall into the power of death; all have death as their destination.

6. When overcome by death and passing to the other world, a father cannot save his son, nor can relatives save their kin.

7. Behold, while relatives are looking on and lamenting, mortals are led away like oxen to the slaughter.

8. As the world is smitten by death and decay, the wise do not grieve, knowing the ways of the world.

9. Grieving is futile when you do not know the path—neither from where they came nor where they have gone—seeing neither end, you lament in vain.

10. If lamenting could bring any benefit, a wise man would harm himself with grief. But peace of mind is not reached through weeping and sorrow.

11. Sorrow only increases suffering and harms the body. One becomes thin and pale by hurting oneself, yet it does not help the departed.

12. Without abandoning sorrow, a person only encounters more pain. Grieving for the deceased means becoming a slave to grief.

13. See others passing away according to their deeds—after falling into the power of death, living beings tremble like fish in a drying stream.