1. Oh how I wish I knew what good is rhetoric
When bellies are empty and starved of wheat

2. Of what use is eloquence, metaphors and rhyme
When there is no bread, only hunger and grime

3. While stinginess and greed make the poor scoff
You rhetoricians, come, for nothing can appease

4. More than a meal shared between friends at ease
Where, oh where is the meat, rice and bread?

5. Listen, for my empty stomach rumbles instead
The days of fine dining have gone away

6. Now hunger reigns, and Lebanon decays
What chaos we unleash, fanning the flames

7. Of hunger, when no food a human sustains
No buying or selling in this forsaken land

8. That's seen its plenty, now gripped in famine's hand
Too long have I tarried here in this abbey

9. That even monks would not have taken me
If they saw my books and pens in this cell

10. Forbidden by bishops, as I know full well
I'm isolated from mankind, alone but for poetry

11. Seen by no one, neither he, she nor we
A life that if seen even in a dream's fancies

12. Could not be consoled afterwards by music or melodies