1. How many hours have pained me with their touch
And disturbed me with their harsh hand

2. I searched within them desperately but could not find
A single pure, serene moment

3. And how much bitterness did their sister hours make me drink
That I would complain about to the next one

4. This one handed me over by force
To another hour, and so it remained

5. And woe to you, o wretched one, do you complain
About the claw's wound to the one who inflicted it?

6. Beware of the hours, woe to those
Who feel safe from their tyrannical gang

7. And if you find among them an hour
Whose bosom is free of anguish

8. Then enjoy it, like the wise man who
Does not let the present make him forget the past

9. And frolic as one intoxicated frolics
When the abyss lies beneath him

10. For it, though it shines and caresses
Is a treacherous, accustomed trickster

11. Its embrace is strangling, its kiss
Is like the bite of a raging serpent

12. Such is life, so say to the one
Wounded by the hour and the next

13. O you who complain of the hours, perhaps
The deciding hour will save you from them