Laudator Temporis Acti

The Zen Poems of Ryōkan. Selected and Translated with an Introduction, Biographical Sketch, and Notes by Nobuyuki Yuasa (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 73-74:

Such is the power of mutability that all our lives perish,
This minute and this minute, faster than any can foretell.
A youth's rosy cheeks wither, no matter how we prize them.
A man's bushy hairs droop till they are thin like strings.
Years weigh on your backs till your bone bends like a bow.
The skin on your weary face wrinkles like the ruffled sea.
A noise like that of a cicada attacks your ears all night.
Flowers flitter in your eyes all day, dazzling your sense.
When you rise or sit, you must vent out a long windy sigh,
And when you walk, you must support your weight on a cane.
You chase in your dreams the memories of your happy youth,
And count in despair the miseries of your over-ripe years.
How else can I describe the wretched state of an aged man,
But to compare it with a broken bough flung away in frost?
Yet we all must come to this state, sooner than we expect,
For time never spares us, once we are born in frail flesh.
Time creeps on, minute by minute, without a moment's stay,
And how long can we retain our youthful days against time?
The elements that constitute our flesh languish every day,
And, nightly, sick dullness overspreads our mind and body.
One morning you will find yourself far too weak to get up.
Then for many days following, you must lie upon your back.
The lips that you once used to whip others with eloquence,
What use do they have now, when you must sleep in silence?
Once your breath fails and leaves your body in sad stupor,
All the instruments of your perception lose their virtues.
Your friends and relatives will watch your face and mourn.
Your own family will lament, passing their hands over you.
However desperately they may call, you cannot answer them.
However loudly they may cry, you can never recognize them.
For you are already well on your way to timeless darkness.
Alas, you must make this solitary journey all by yourself.