1. O you who complain, what ails you?
How can you start your day feeling unwell?

2. The worst sinner on earth is the soul
That longs for departure before departure is due

3. And sees thorns in roses and is blind
To see the dew above as a wreath

4. It is a heavy burden on life
Who thinks life a heavy burden

5. And he whose soul lacks beauty
Sees nothing beautiful in existence

6. None is more wretched than one who sees life as bitter
And thinks pleasure in it excessive

7. The best people in life are those
Who gave it meaning and made the best meaning

8. So enjoy the dawn as long as you are in it
Do not fear it will disappear until it disappears

9. And if worries shade your head
Shorten your search in it so it does not lengthen

10. The birds of the meadows understood its essence
It is shameful for you to remain ignorant

11. While she sees the field belonging to another
She made it her theater and dwelling

12. She sings while the falcon owns the air
Over her and the hunters on the road

13. She sings though she saw some of them taken alive
And others meet their death

14. She sings though her life is part of a year
Will she cry though she may live long?

15. So over the branches in the dawn she recites
Verses of passion and love chanting

16. And at times on the ground fallen
She picks seeds or drags her tail

17. Whenever stillness held the branches
She flapped to the branches until they swayed

18. So when the companion birds left
She stood over them conversing with the companions

19. So seek pleasure as birds seek
In exile, shade and shelter

20. And learn the love of nature from her
And leave nonsense to people and tales

21. For he who avoids caprices will find
Every time in everyone pleasant

22. You are to the earth first and last
Whether you were king or abject slave

23. There is no eternity under the sky for the living
So why pursue the impossible?

24. Every star is bound to set but
The bane of a star is to fear setting

25. The goal of flowers in gardens is to wither
Be wise and precede them in withering

26. And if you find shade on earth
Take shelter in it until it shifts

27. And anticipate, when the sky grows dark
Rain in the plains reviving the plains

28. Say to a people who drain valleys dry
Did you heal your anguish with crying?

29. We did not come to life to suffer
So comfort, people of reason, reason

30. All who gather worries upon themselves
Worries have seized them in a painful seizure

31. Be playful in your nest, singing
And with shackles cares not for shackles

32. Not a raven chasing worms in the soil
Nor an owl in the night weeping for fledglings

33. Be a stream flowing gurgling on earth
Watering on both sides the fields

34. Stars bathe in it and everyone and everything finds
An equal and a likeness

35. Not a vessel to confine water
Until the water in it becomes stale

36. Be with dawn a breeze expanding the days
At times a sun and at times a kiss

37. Not poisons from snakes that fill
The earth in darkness with wailing

38. And with night a star comforting
The slumberous, the river, the hillside and plains

39. Not gloom that people and mankind dislike
Casting lethargy on all

40. O you who complain, what ails you?
Be beautiful and you will see existence as beautiful