1. Let us walk towards that ancient temple
Standing atop the rocks between the mountains

2. Let us walk, let us walk, perhaps
The monks know the secret of joy and hopes

3. Those ascetics in the white monastery
Where purity fills existence

4. May they know what we have ignored
Of the lost star of happiness

5. I asked the monks about our magical treasure
But got no answer from them

6. I got no reply except a mournful voice
Singing and sipping bitterness

7. I found nothing in those monasteries
Except pale faces and misery

8. I found nothing but the loneliness that brings despair
And silence like the silence of graves

9. What do you think those specters are?
Humans or remnants of ghosts?

10. Why did they come and what solace
Did they find in these caves?

11. In the far horizons under the veil of existence
Sadness walks in it

12. Where life remained as it was
In Adam and his sons' days

13. Where there are no flowers, no beds, no trees
Nothing but stillness

14. Nothing new but a living one dies
Among his sons from time to time

15. O monk who spends his life lonely in his bleak hut
Tell me, talk to me in the evening about

16. The bliss and good news you have
Talk to me about yourselves, and they said a life

17. Of bliss and pure souls
Strange! Where is what they say?

18. Why do I see only the misery of the wretched?
What do you have of good news and joy?

19. What is it, O you ascetics?
It’s just a sad life passing

20. Melancholy and stillness
Talk to me about yourselves, and they said hearts

21. Woven from purity and richness
And souls molded from flowers and fragrance

22. And passions with brilliance and purity
Where is this they say about you,

23. O monks? Where can it be found?
The name (Thaïs) kept filling the universe

24. So where did the one who lost his way go?
We didn't forget the seduction of the poor monk

25. In his love for her, and how she misguided him!
What a miserable man who carried the daughter of sin

26. To the summit of heaven and got lost with her
O monks, flowers and fragrance and brilliance

27. Will not grow in souls in vain
You escape from the temptations of life

28. How much in existence is like Thaïs
You will not taste the honey of happiness

29. As long as you are mundane beings of dust and water
Nature has written for the living

30. To sip from the cups of misery
Or do you forget that you still are

31. As you used to be, confused and sad
The temptation of existence still calls you

32. And blows you to what used to be
The memories of your bitter past

33. Still live in the grieving souls
And the imagination of a world with colorful charm

34. Fills the deluded feelings
O monks what good is retirement

35. Tainted by caprices?
Ah, return to face fate

36. And live as life dictates
O sad temple, farewell

37. You in whom my hopes took refuge
I did not find within your fence a flower sweeter than deprivation

38. I have long searched in vain
Prolonged is my confusion so tell me, when

39. Will my heart reach your unknown abode?
Or did I not sail the seas to the monks

40. And ascetics in the desert?
Or did virtue not deny you, O object of my fervent hopes, lost is my hope

41. On the bank of life I moored
My boat in fog under darkness

42. I watch those walking on the rocky shore
Between valleys and peaks

43. Where can I find you, O happiness? Speak to me, as I searched long
Prolonged was my roaming, so tell me when

44. Will my heart reach your unknown abode?