1. You reached the dawn of life blind,
And you did not know the darkness.

2. So the gloom surrounded you,
And the clouds gathered above you.

3. You lived in a frightful solitude
With thoughts that were all thorns.

4. And a loneliness that had no friend,
And a darkness that had no end,

5. Wandering the wilderness of existence alone,
Afflicted by poverty and disease.

6. And misfortunes chased your soul
As peace fled from your heart.

7. Be gentle with your heart if
You cannot see the stars,

8. Nor see the forest murmuring
With clouds floating over it.

9. Nor see the singing stream
With mist dancing around it.

10. For we are all wretched and deserving
Of the mercy of the Almighty Creator.

11. And we are all blind in life,
Led by fruitless confusion.

12. And around us shriek the fates
As if they were the hellfire.

13. My friend, life is a wasteland,
Frightening, with mirage water.

14. The eye reaps from it only
The thorns and dust of sorrow.

15. And the happiest people in it are the blind
Who do not see the horror and calamity,

16. Who do not see the wilds of existence
Melting in the flames of torment.

17. So praise the God of life and be content
In it with your songs of lament.

18. And live however the nights willed
With the sigh of the flute and lute.