Our path is known: life is but a dream,
Wondrous though it is, it does not last.
Life is a value given for a term.
Do good, and you will draw good from it.
In the end, all share one fate —
Death awaits both master and slave.
Rise, do good while you still have the strength,
Do not forget: we must all lie in the grave.

(Yusuf Khass Hajib Balasaguni was a Turkic poet and thinker who lived in the 11th century in the cities of Kashgar and Balasagun, in the Karakhanid state, and wrote the poem Kutadgu Bilig (“Blessed Knowledge”), an ethical-didactic and political-philosophical treatise. His work was strongly influenced by the teachings of Ibn Sina and al-Farabi, and by the Shahnameh of the great Ferdowsi.)