When the springs are dried up

Fish cluster together in the mud.

Than that they should moisten

One another by the damp about them

And keep each other wet by their slime,

It would be better for them to forget

One another in the rivers and lakes.

When men praise kindness

And condemn evil, it would also

Be better to forget them both

And seek the renovation in space

Between Heaven and Earth.

There is the great mass of nature--

I find the support of my body on it;

My lifespan is spent in cultivation

And constant toil on it; my old age

Seeks ease on it, but at death

I find at last rest in it. In the end,

What makes my life a good now

Makes my death a good then, I guess.