1. It is said there was a field mouse
Who wandered with her two sons over the haystacks

2. She named the elder Light of the Field
And taught him to walk over thread

3. So he came to know the meadows and pastures
And mastered going in and coming out

4. And became in his craft like his forebears
And lived happily like a farmer

5. But the younger broke his mother's heart
With arrogance, and she was perplexed what to name him

6. So he said, name me Light of the Palace
For I, mother, am the mouse of the age

7. I see what my brother cannot see
So I have a path and he has a path

8. I will enter house after house
Leaping from shelf to jar

9. Perhaps if my feet prove steady
And I attain, O all I wish, my hopes

10. I will bring you what I find in the house
Of honey or cheese or oil

11. So his mother inclined to the younger one
And drew him close, hugging him

12. Saying, I fear for you, O victim of appetite
The darkness of houses

13. Your father saw it fit
For you to be a farmer like him

14. So do as he advised and gladden my soul
Or go safely under God's protection

15. But the mouse just laughed and shook his shoulder
And said, whoever said that is senile

16. Then he went ahead with his resolve
And swore his mother to secrecy

17. So every Friday he came
With cheese in his mouth or candle fat

18. Until a month passed and the next month
And the thief was found out and the matter spread

19. So one day he came to her in turmoil
And she asked him where did he leave his tail

20. He said there's nothing strange
In honey to have sunk and in honey to be lost

21. And he came to her a second time, ashamed
Hiding from her that he had lost a leg

22. He said, "A shelf I did not jump well from
Has left me limping in the heights."

23. And on the third time the mouse's son
Had broken his custom of visiting

24. So her heart was troubled for him and aflame
And the mother set out to him in haste

25. And found him on the road, flung down
His bones crushed to powder

26. So the mother cried out wailing, "Woe!"
"The heights have killed my son!"