My face turns green and pale

The world waits for me

With greedy, eager hopes;

Prepared with oiled ropes

It waits with vile glee.

My time whiles away

It oozes from my grasp

The more I try to clasp

My chance, it scorns to stay.

My heart cleaves to friends

Who like me fine at first

But when they sense my thirst

For love, affection ends.

In youth, I was merry

Feeling safe and glad;

In time, as I went mad,

My joys I had to bury

My child, learn from me!

As soon as you have hurled

Your heart into the world,

Make sure that you stay free!

The predatory earth,

The life that seeps away,

The gladness grief will slay–

Experience kills mirth–

Protect yourself! Don’t age!

Nor hope; nor love; nor trust.

All pleasures soon will rust;

Contentment sours to rage.

All living leads to grief

Emotion is temptation;

Indifference, insulation,

And pain destroys belief.

So, darling, never care,

And never will you suffer,

For life is so much rougher

Than dying’s sweet repair.

A fleeting life’s a blessing,

For life and pain are wed.

At long last, I'll be dead.