1 For they said within themselves, reasoning not aright, Short and sorrowful is our life; And there is no healing when a man comes to his end, And none was ever known that gave release from Hades.
2 Because by mere chance were we born, And hereafter we shall be as though we had never been: Because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, And while our heart beats reason is a spark,
3 Which being extinguished, the body shall be turned into ashes, And the spirit shall be dispersed as thin air;
4 And our name shall be forgotten in time, And no man shall remember our works; And our life shall pass away as the traces of a cloud, And shall be scattered as is a mist, When it is chased by the beams of the sun, And overcome by the heat thereof.
5 For our alloted time is the passing of a shadow, And our end retreats not; Because it is fast sealed, and none turns it back.