Look where you will, you see only vanity on Earth
Build today, tear down tomorrow
Where towns now stand there will be meadows
Splendid flow'rs soon trodden down
What struts and preens becomes ash and bone
Nothing can be eternal, no marble stone, no metal
Fortune smiles now, but soon hardships threaten
The fame of great deeds must be like a fleeting dream
Why should as time's plaything, frivolous, endure at all?
Oh! What is all this that we regard as precious
But worthless nothingness, than shadows, dust and wind?
What is all this but a wild flower that cannot be found again
That which is eternal yet no human wills to see?
All is Vanity!
