A modern translation of "Death, be not proud"


Death, don't be proud - even though some people have said you are
Mighty and dreadful.  You are not mighty and dreadful.
Those people you think that you destroy
Don't die, and you can't really kill me either.  Poor Death!
Death is like rest and sleep, and from rest and sleep we get
Much pleasure.  So to be dead must be even more pleasurable
And the sooner the best people in the world die the better,
O Death who gives rest to their bones and delivers their souls [to heaven].
You are a servant to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And your companions are poison, war, and sickness,
And, anyway, poppies or charms can make us sleep even 
Better than you can.  Why do you swell with pride, then?
After a short sleep, we will be awake forever [in heaven]
And death will exist no longer.  Death, it is you who will die.
 




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