1. How much life passed me by that I don't recall
And how much life passed me by that I don't forget

2. I bid farewell in you to remnants I was attached to
Of my youth and farewells I didn't commemorate

3. I yearn for it over how my liver was ulcerated
From the wounds of dawn and dusk combined

4. I wore it while the tears of my eyes compliant
And my soul fervent and my heart lent

5. So it was my aide over anguish I endure
And the bitterness of life it cast upon me

6. If a friend I befriended betrayed my affection
Or a lover I loved broke their vow to me

7. My tears were made cheap by the wellspring of song through it
Oh my fervor and the drying up of old age made it precious

8. How much my tears vented my heart and how much
Past sorrows in its folds washed it clean

9. I didn't know its extent until gray hair
Overpowered me against my will and ended it

10. They said you're free of the shackle of infatuation so live
Freely for in captivity is humiliation you used to refuse

11. So I said oh if only its harshness endured
It was never gentler and more tender to me

12. I was replaced from it with a shackle I can't escape
And how can I escape a shackle God forged?

13. The youth are prisoners while alive even if they struggle
As for old age, it is the dead's captivity to it