One By One

The stillness of the pool is broken by swans which land so gracefully.
I sit under a tree watching the swans as they glide across the water.

The leaves show many colors as they fall from the oak trees one by one.
All the color is lost as they turn brown, and as the trees stand alone.

I see the lives of men in the leaves. One by one they die off, one by one.
Oh, I wonder which leaf stands for me. Was it the first or the last to fall.

There's a leaf for a man and the leaf does die just like the happiest man.
I wonder if we are like the leaves which return to the trees in the spring.

The reincarnation which some people do worship in their religions.
Is it really all true? Do people die and return again like the leaves?

One by one we all die, one by one, not two by two,
We die so lonely while observers watch, violent deaths or peaceful deaths,
They don't matter, for we do die, one by one.