These days I feel so terribly tired, I run out of breath far too quickly!
Even the faithful red of the flame tree no longer stirs my heart.
Tell me, do others feel this wretched lately, just like me?
Do they too weep in broad daylight, as I do?
When so much pain gathers in the chest,
when that wound finds not even a spot for a healing touch,
do they all go stand before mirrors and smile exactly like this?
When I see someone laugh with such bright abandon, I grow afraid.
Most likely, I can clearly sense
the night’s lament that clings fast in every person’s eyes,
and the day’s anguish too.
To stay alive, one must shake off all personal tears.
They shake them off while weeping, I shake mine off while laughing. That’s the only difference!
Those who don’t weep—they too have sorrow. Those who don’t laugh—they too have joy.
I watch them, how easily they tally up their whole life’s success or failure!
I watch and marvel. I think—I can’t even balance the seconds, and they…
Am I then less than human? Perhaps I am!
O God! You didn’t even grant me this small portion of fortune!
In this world one group will only weep, another will always make others weep…
To seek the reason for this truth leads finally down the path of delusion!
Those who cannot tell which smile comes from the lips, and which from the heart—
they truly haven’t grown up yet!
We essentially grow up alongside some very small people.
Hiding myself away, today I’ve pushed myself so far from myself
that when I try to walk, I stumble before my own eyes!
My own eyes, my own tears—
they too give me no quarter!
All my happiness, my plans, my good fortune, even my broken fragments of laughter—
if absolutely forced, I’d auction them off with a smile,
but I will never sell this ocean of tears for anything at all!