A Name That Lives On

What lives on after we die?

*The Sayings of the High One* advises being wise in moderation. A person wise enough to know everything, it says, seldom has a cheerful heart. Those who do not know their fate in advance can live with the least sorrow.

The poem also speaks of the joys of living. Even if your health is poor, not everything in life is unhappy. Some find joy in their children, others in their relatives. Some take pleasure in wealth or work that goes well.

Yet cattle die, relatives die, and we ourselves will die. Even so, the fame of those who earn a good name never dies. The next verse says that people's judgment of the dead is what lives on forever.

On love, the poem warns against trusting women's words. Yet it also says that men have deceitful hearts toward women. And it teaches us not to blame someone for falling in love: powerful love can make a wise person foolish.

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