O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,

always waxing
or waning;
hateful life

first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;

poverty
and power
it melts them like ice


Fate -- monstrous
and empty,

you whirling wheel,
stand malevolent,
well-being is vain

and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled

you plague me too;
now through trickery,
I bring my bare back

to your villainy.

Fate, in health

and in virtue,
is against me,
driven on

and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour

without delay
pluck the vibrating string;
since Fate

strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!