As is said, there is no beginning

Which was not an end; and that

The human and heavenly ways

May be one and the same.

The changes rise and dissolution

Of all things continually goes on,

But we do not know who it is that

Maintains and continues the process.

How do we know when anything begins?

How do we know when we will come

To the end? We have simply to wait for it

And see -- nothing else we can really do.

This is because man has Heaven above him;

As for Heaven, it still has Heaven above it,

And nothing more. That man cannot have all things

Is owing to the limitation of his capabilities.

For this reason, the sagely minded man

Is he who quietly passes away with his bodily frame,

And there is an end of it. But if I prefer to take

Such a simply sounded point of view,

What am I if not a primitive dude? . .