This at least behoves every man,
That he his soul's course should heed,
How awful it will be
When death arrives,
The kinship sunders,
Those that were together,
Body and soul.

Departed from men, the spirit,
In punishment or glory, death not discern
While him here in the world,
An earth vessel remains.

The anxious ghost shall come,
Always after seven nights,
A soul, to find the body,
That, from which it had been taken,
Then shall call so sad,
With a cold voice,
The spirit to that dust,
Words of a soul departed,
After it, from its body were led.

"Why hast thou tortured me? Foulness of earth!"
"Why dost thou torture me? I art not the food of worms!"

"I within thee dwelt and I might not go
From, where with flesh,
I had invested with me
Thy sinful lusts oppressed,
So that to me full oft it seemed,
That it were a thousand winters
To thy death-day.

Our parting I awaited
Thou did not bear in mind, here in life,
While I thee, in the world did inhabit,
That thou were, through flesh and sinful lusts,
Strongly excited,
Through me composed.

Thou art no longer dear
To any living one.
Nor to Mother or Father,
Nor any of thy kin,
'cept the swart raven,
After I alone from thee passed out,
Through the same one's hand
From which I came.

Here shall abide bones bereft,
Torn from the sinews;
Thy joys are naught
Thou art deaf and dumb,
Yet must I thee at night,
By compulsion visit,
For thy sins afflicted,
And soon from thee depart.

When holy men to their living God,
Chant their hymn,
Must then I seek the home,
Which I hath been assigned?

That un-honoured dwelling-place,
While thee shall mould
Worms many chew,
From sinews tear,
Wretched creatures,
Ravenous and greedy,
Wretched creatures,
I lie undone!

Thy possessions are all naught,
Which on earth did you to men exhibit.
Therefore shall it be,
Than to thee were all earth's riches!

Bestowed them for the Lord himself,
Thou were at a beginning
A bird, a fish in the sea, or a beast of the earth,
Traversing the fields, a brute without understanding
Yet in the waste of creatures, the fiercest there!

Though thou were of worm the worst,
Did you not become a man?
And answer on that great day,
When shall the sins be exposed!

Then will all the world hear the deeds of men,
What will you there on doomsday say?
When there shall be no joy,
Then it shall go its way,
Seek hell's abyss,
Not heaven's joys,
The dust shall be lie!

Shall drink in swarms the carcass,
Thirsty for corruption,
The tongue be drawn asunder,
Into ten parts!

To the hungry ones for food,
Not wisely in words converse,
With the accursed ghost,
To every man
As a memorial,
Of mind sagacious!

That tract of earth is not, over mid-earth,
Fellow too many peopled lands,
But it is withdrawn,
Through creations might,
From wicked men!

Beauteous is the plain,
With enchantments blessed,
With the sweetness of earth,
Distinctive is the island,
And noble its makers,
Who the land founded

That is a pleasant plain,
Green worlds,
Spacious under blue skies;
There may not rain nor snow,
Nor rage of frost, nor fire's blast,
Nor fall of hail, nor heat of sun,
Nor barren cold, nor winter shower,
The plain endures forever

That glorious land is higher by twelve fold
Of fathom measure,
As us the skillful have informed,
sages, through wisdom,
In writings show,
Than any of those hills
That brightly here with us
Tower high!
Under the stars,
Serenity lies o'er the glorious plain,
The sunny bower glitters
The trees ever stand green!

I dance like flames,
I lend the winds,
Glorious shapes!
The fire in me,
Feels for the lightening,
And breathes me away,
Down the wind!

I will tell thee
My secret love,
If thou from me
Thy knowledge hidest,
The departing shall go,
Fated die, every day
Separated from mid earth!

When I am lifted up,
And they all bow to me,
The many with mildness,
There I must increase,
For the goodness of man,
The rising of prosperity!

Him the wolf shall eat,
The hoar traverser of the heath,
His mother then shall on his death,
Bemourn the life without control,

One shall hunger destroy,
and the cruel drive away,
One shall the spear lay prostate,
Where war doth crush a soul

One shall void of light,
And pass this life,
With his hands grope;
With his breath fight,

Sick with sinew-wounds,
His pain, bewails,
In mind afflicted,
One shall in the forest, from a high tree,
Wingless fall, Hover in air!

One shall void of light,
And pass this life,
With his hands grope,
With his breath fight,

To Earth he shall no longer be
The wild tree's fruit,
When he to the root
Shall sink with life exhausted,
Of soul bereft,
Shall fall on the earth,
His soul be on his journey.

Here shall sweep the victor's sword,
So that to deep hollows, will evils fall,
Into the swart flame,
Into the camp of foes,
The shoal of the wicked,
Accursed to perdition,
Within the house of torment,
The death-hall of the devil!

Not the Earth's remembrance,
Shall they seek after?
Will not emerge from sin,
Where they, stained with crimes,
Bound in flame, shall suffer,
Shall be to them sin-vengeance,
That is eternal death!

That hot gulph may not, from the race of men,
In all eternity, burn up sin, throughout all time,
Stain the soul & feedeth the dreary,
Hold spirits in darkness!

Flames scorch them with its ancient might,
With the frost of terror,
And with fierce worms
May it torment many!

so that we may judge and never declare,
That the soul's guardian,
Life's wisdom hath lost,
Who now heedeth not,
Whether his spirit be happy or sad,
Where he shall for ever,
After death, sojourn!

Then there shone lights,
Of beams the brightest,
That beacon was upon the earth,
As a fiery tower seen beneath the sky,
Bright as the sun,

A song of triumph sun,
Throughout the air,
Threnody to the fallen,
Filled with joys,
For the love of those ones missed,
With angels' sound may voice relate!

But here they bear forth,
Birds screech & grey-wolves bay
The war-wood still clashes,
Where shield answers sword

Woe-deeds come to pass
That which man's hatred desire to fulfil,
Now the moon shines
Wandering under clouds,

The raven hovered, shimmering dark
Then the fire feedeth on a fleeting body's life
The spirit of the lost journeys onward
As funeral pyre consumes flesh & bone

A song of triumph sung,
Throughout the air,
Threnody to the fallen,
Filled with joys,
For the love of those ones missed,
With angels' sound,
All there within
That in the world,
May voice relate,

A song of triumph sung!