1 Poor soul the centre of my sinful earth, opening lament: 'Poor soul'
Poor soul, the center of this sinful flesh Poor soul, trapped at the heart of this sinful body poor soul at my body's core
2 My sinful earth these rebel powers array,
This sinful flesh arrays these rebellious powers Your body's putting together all these rebellious desires flesh gathers rebel powers
3 Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth
Why do you waste away inside and starve Why are you wasting away inside while you're starving why wasting inside starving
4 Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
While painting your outer walls so expensively beautiful While you're making your outside so expensive and fancy painting walls expensive & fancy
5 Why so large cost having so short a lease,
Why spend so much when you only lease life for so short Why spend so much when you only get a short time anyway why spend so much on borrowed time
6 Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Do you spend on this fading dwelling Are you really spending on a body that's falling apart spend on this fading shell Wordplay: “mansion”
The body as a temporary dwelling; the soul is its long-term resident but the flesh is temporary.
7 Shall worms inheritors of this excess
Will worms become the heirs to all this excess Will worms inherit everything you spent so much on worms inherit what u spent
8 Eat up thy charge? is this thy body’s end?
Consume what you paid for? Is this your body's purpose Eat up everything you bought? Is that all your body's worth worms eat it all that's it
Volta The volta pivots from lamentation and rhetorical questions (lines 1–8) to prescriptive action (lines 9–14): the soul must invert its priorities, starving flesh and feeding spirit.
9 Then soul live thou upon thy servant’s loss,
Then soul, live on while your body deteriorates So soul, sustain yourself while your body falls apart soul live on while body dies
10 And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
And let that body waste away to increase your wealth Let your body waste away so your soul grows richer body wastes soul gains
11 Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Buy eternity by selling the worthless hours Trade these pointless hours for something eternal sell waste time buy forever
12 Within be fed, without be rich no more,
Be nourished within, no longer be rich without Feed your soul inside, stop adorning yourself outside feed inside not outside
13 So shall thou feed on death, that feeds on men,
Then you will consume death itself, which consumes all people Then you'll master death, the thing that destroys everyone you'll eat death that eats men
14 And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.
And once death itself is dead, there is no more dying And once death is gone, you never die again kill death then no more dying