Quatrains of Khalilullah Khalili

If the gates of hope are shut before me,
Yet there is death, like a crack in the wall!

I'm very grateful that I was able to get a glimpse of Afghan poetry despite not being able to read the language these texts were originally written in. I'm glad there exist translations despite the possibility of exact intentions and worldplay being changed or lost in the process of translating it.
But judging from a brief foreword of Afghan poet and scholar Khalilullah Khalili himself in this publication, I'm assuming he had a bit of an influence on that process which gives me some confidence that these English versions are fairly close to the original expression at least.

As the title makes clear, this is a collection of quatrains by one of the most famous writers in Afghan history. They all reflect on life, many of them being about the passing of time, about aging, death and love. Some of them are even funny, at least to me, like one mentioning the joy of breaking a law.
Some of them are very clever like the one comparing the moon from a sentimental (“everlasting light”) and a scientific perspective (“dark planet”). 
My favorite phrase though might have come from a poem about the fact that we are all the same in death, where we become servants to the worms.