1. Where is joy when my heart today is wounded?
A lonely wanderer played by the winds.

2. A soul pouring on my cheek, mistaken for
The tears of a languid heart that has no soul.

3. And love inscribed lines that gleam on my chest
Translated by the tongue of yearning laid bare.

4. I placed my cheek on the palm of submission, and in me
Is the humiliation upon the thresholds of glory cast down.

5. So the valley of my people flashed like lightning, and
My slumbering determination awoke, and the challenge and the struggle smelled sweet.

6. And a caller from that neighborhood recited to me
A verse that comforts my heart with its hints.

7. “If the doors of kings are closed,
Do not despair, for God's door is open.”