1. I despair of life, yet my despair
Would give my soul relief, if conscience fell silent;

2. But I suffer the torment of my thoughts,
And that is the greatest agony.

3. I have lost my joy and peace of mind,
My bliss and delight have left me.

4. From glory I have sunk into degradation -
Oh, my sorrow! Evil is my fate.

5. I betrayed my virtuous wife, though she
Was my protection, and homes were made honourable through her.

6. I was ungrateful to my patron - my sin against him
Is as great as his generosity to me was.

7. After my father, he was my guardian,
But I repaid his kindness with ingratitude - may I be ruined!

8. I was tempted and found no satisfaction;
Seduction took its strongest hold on me.

9. Misfortune clings to me wherever I stay or go;
I find only it, nothing else.

10. My beauty changed quickly into ugliness,
So my beauty today is miserable and despised.

11. Homes reject me in every neighbourhood,
And better than me is he who lies in the grave.

12. Come, my mother's sons, and witness me -
After this, what disgrace can I suffer?

13. I was crazed with passion for an immoral woman, and this
Was the trace left by your immorality.

14. I squandered my blood on her and neglected my family,
So I received only rejection and aversion from her.

15. I found a sea of wealth, but it did not restrain me -
Little was lost from it, and not much.

16. When she had drained my abundance, she showed me
The hidden baseness of her ungrateful soul.

17. I saw the ugliness she had concealed with her beauty,
And I rejoiced, though my eyes had no light.

18. Hateful, banished, with the door barred against me,
As a hired hand is dismissed once found distasteful.

19. Can I live after my worries are gone
And ills surround me on all sides?

20. Will it satisfy me to endure the bitterness of life
If I show patience without praise?

21. When I hesitate though boldness is my right,
And the difficult path seems a disgrace to my dignity,

22. The cowardly villain remains in me
While the brave, noble man is destroyed.