1. With thorns like swords or talons of an eagle
It lurked in the woods like a thief, to steal and plunder

2. It blocked the path for the farmer and the revered master
I protected my face but it grabbed my clothes

3. Each time I escaped one fang it caught me with another
It has the bite of snakes and the sting of flies

4. And it bothered me while still as it did when I stirred
It was like shackles on my legs and clouds over my mind

5. As if we were in an embrace, not a struggle or skirmish
I said, o dweller of the woods, o daughter of dust

6. Don’t pull me in or drag me in
A wet stick cannot be firewood

7. I am in the dawn of my life, in the bloom of my youth
Passion fills my heart and adolescence fills my dreams

8. And wishes grow on my path, walking with my steps
I'm not yet tired of living or bored with my friends

9. I still glimpse the specter of glory even in a mirage
I still feel pleasure even in torment

10. I still anticipate beauty even beneath a veil
I don't fear death nor does it frighten me

11. I belong to the earth even if distant or estranged from it
Except my udder is still ripe for milking and squeezing

12. I haven't given all that I have nor emptied my wineskins
I'm a river that hasn't finished flowing across the land

13. I'm a meadow that hasn't diffused all its incense and garlands
I'm a star whose cloak of mist hasn't fully ripped

14. I'm the dawn whose diadems don't crown all the hilltops
I have desires not yet born of confusion

15. And in myself I find meanings unnamed in books
So when the water in my soul runs dry

16. And when my hopes disappear behind the veil
And when no rain remains in my clouds

17. And when I become like a withered scarecrow
With no beggar hoping in me or opportunist expecting

18. Then pull me in if I can benefit the soil
Then pull me in if I can benefit the soil