Oh how long, year after year,
my weary journey has kept on going!
How short a space until my brief
and useless human rambling ends!

Time wastes away and my ruin increases;
a remedy I used to have is gone.
If we can judge from past experience,
every large hope is a grand illusion.

I chase some good that can't be had:
when halfway there, I've lost the trail;
falling a thousand times, I despair.

It flees, I lag; and if, in my lagging,
I look up to see if it's still there,
it's lost from sight and lost from hope.