1. My heart desires happiness, even if
It were found in the universe, no sorrow would blaze, nor pain

2. Nor would the lives of all people be transformed
And these cosmic systems and organizations shaken

3. For happiness in this world is naught but a dream
That nations sacrifice their days for

4. Deceiving people are wild delusions
When dreams and darkness befell them

5. So everyone calls out to it and chants it
As if people had not slept nor dreamed

6. Take life as it comes to you, smiling,
In its palm a pearl or in its palm nonexistence

7. And dance on roses and thorns relaxed
Whether the birds sang for you or the stones were cast at you

8. And work as life commands without bitterness
And restrain your feelings in it, for it is an idol

9. For whoever suffered, his agony was not pitied
And whoever persevered, the summits did not mock him

10. This is the happiness of our worldly life so be a man
If you want it for all eternity, smiling

11. And if you want to spend your life at ease
And poetic, not clouded by regret

12. Then leave people their world and their clamor
And what they built for the system of living or devised

13. And make your life an flowering, verdant oasis
In the isolation of the forest, to grow and then vanish

14. And make your nights dreams warbling
For life and what it implies is a dream