Were it not folly, spider-like to spin
The thread of present life away to win --
What? for ourselves, who know not if we shall
Breathe out the very Breath we now breathe in!
**
I sent my soul through the invisible,
Some letter of that after-life to spell:
And after many days my soul return'd
And said "Behold, Myself am Heav'n and Hell."
**
Then said another --"Surely not in vain
My substance from the common Earth was ta'en,
That he who subtly wrought me into shape
Should stamp me back to common Earth again."
**
With them the seed of wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd --
"I came like water and like wind I go."
**Translated to English in 1859 by Edward FitzGerald