173 –

This world is ever veiled in deception;
no one who lays claim to it escapes affliction.

It is a dwelling place of calamities and cares,
a realm of war-standards, sorrows, and complaint.

No youth among us secures a lasting abode here:
no sooner has he taken his place than the earth’s earlier neighbours lie strewn beneath him.

Its vices and its virtues tread hard upon one another’s heels—
nothing at all stands between a funeral notice and glad tidings.