Classic Poem

Even the rulers of countries go to the burning ground
where the land is waste and desolate and filled with dry thorns,
and owls are there with blazing mouths and undulating shrieks,
and small foxes, their glistening teeth smeared with fat,
chew at corpses; where demonesses, grasping and embracing the dead,
dance swinging their legs on that salty land in terrifying movement
by the light of the pyres, their bodies sending out the stench
of hot meat because they have consumed the bloodless flesh.
And that day will come when you must go there as well,
but your bad reputation will remain, and your good reputation.
Shunning a bad name, seeking a good one,
you should not favor avarice but your words
should be impartial. If you are endlessly generous
and say to those who come to you in their need:
“Take these!” and give them many elephants with tusks
glittering and also horses caparisoned in gold and high,
ornamented chariots, then after all have seen you go
to the other world your fame will remain here, shining and enduring!