<poem>WITHOUT haste, without rest,

     Teach the prophets of to-day; 

Bind this motto to thy breast,

   Grant not Nirvana, Lord, I pray.

No days are overfilled with woe,

   No nights but lights are on the way,

And when my soul to Thee must go,

   Withhold Nirvana, Lord, I pray. 

To me divine the life that is

   More good than evil, gay than grave; 

I could not think it to resign,

   And for Nirvana then to crave.

I only ask myself to keep

   In conscious life in that great day; 

Engulf it not in essence deep,

   Or blank Nirvana, Lord, I pray.