I Lived

I often suffer from my straightforwardness.
They call me cutting, say I am evil.
I stumbled, I fell,
but I'm getting up...I'm leaving. And I'm walking...

And my path is overgrown with thorns...
Insidiousness, malice—I meet them every day.
I do not give up. And with my last strength,
I am smiling. I know, the power lives in me!

It dwells in the heart, pouring out handfuls of love,
yet there is both pain and sorrow...
Still, we need so little to be able
to find happiness in small things...

Smiling, I greet every sunrise.
At sunset, I wave farewell with sadness.
I firmly believe that goodness exists
in a smile and in a friendly hand...

In spring, summer, autumn and winter
I was giving. And with myself I was there...
If I look back across the years,
I will only say—I truly lived...