1. I wept, but does weeping avail?
They forgot me, I gained not even solace.

2. I was like the moon, lighting up the gloom,
Yet today eclipsed by electricity.

3. I am a garden of being, so the world
Might wander an hour in serenity.

4. They painted me on a panel,
So I gained in beauty and splendor.

5. Does the painting suffice without the original?
Or is there equality between copy and original?

6. I am the original, I make a garden content.
The branches are other than I, yet from me they acquire growth.

7. If I die, the branches die. If I sicken,
Can the branches find healing?

8. Did a branch outlive me? I meet
With my people only aloofness.

9. I am the sea, my water is liquid gold,
My depth conceals pearls, no exhaustion.

10. So he who reaches out takes the gold,
And he who dives finds pearls, a fine recompense.

11. I am the river, when the echo espy me,
It will drink from me water soothing and fresh.

12. But for my pride I would not have yielded,
I would have refused all save the faithful.

13. The generous man does not repay
The folly and ignorance he meets with,

14. And men whose longing and love
Are for the day of reunion have healed my wounds.

15. For years they miss me. How does my
Absence burden them? It is no trouble.

16. If one sees a single leaf
He is like the sick man who finds healing,

17. Like the starving man whose stomach burns,
Who sees meat roasting in the desert.

18. If offered the world's riches
As a share with me, I would be their choice,

19. And if there was nothing to gain
But some of their lifetime, they were content with loyalty.

20. I am like them, a stranger in the world,
And one day there will be the meeting of strangers.

21. Then we'll forget the wounds and this sorrow,
And live together always as comrades.

22. To spread light we'll wipe out the gloom,
And I will remain, and so will the virtuous.