Yellow Eyes

O Fortune,

just as the moon

Stands constantly changing,

always increasing

or decreasing;

Detestable life

now difficult

and then easy

Deceptive sharp mind;

poverty

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 the game,

my bare back

I bring to your villainy.

Fate, in health

and in virtue,

is now against me,

driven on

and weighted down,

always enslaved.

So at this hour

without delay

pluck the vibrating string;

since through Fate

strikes down the strong,

everyone weep with me!