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Poetic Edda

67. To their homes men would bid  me hither and yon, If at meal-time I needed no meat,Or would hang two hams  in my true friend's house, Where only one I had eaten.
68. Fire for men  is the fairest gift, And power to see the sun;Health as well,  if a man may have it, And a life not stained with sin.
69. All wretched is no man,  though never so sick; Some from their sons have joy,Some win it from kinsmen,  and some from their wealth, And some from worthy works.
70.[1] It is better to live  than to lie a corpse, The live man catches the cow;I saw flames rise  for the rich man's pyre, And before his door he lay dead.
71. The lame rides a horse,  the handless is herdsman, The deaf in battle is bold;The blind man is better  than one that is burned, No good can come of a corpse.
  1. ↑ The manuscript has "and a worthy life" in place of "than to lie a corpse" in line 1, but Rask suggested the emendation as early as 1818, and most editors have followed him.

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