I will go into the field and talk to the dew; and together with the dew I will bemoan our unlucky fate.

I will climb a hill and fall into thought: I was left an orphan; I have no friends.

In my tiny garden grows a lovely lily.... And what is that to me, if I am still young, if I am still an orphan?

As the soaking hemp rots in the water, so lives an orphan in this world.

O my Mother dear, my grey bird, you have raised me, fed me for these bitter woes!

O my Mother, my golden Mother, my grey dove!

You left me all alone to minister to others’ wants.

What have I done to you, my Mother dear, that you have so deserted me?

If you had drowned me in my bath, my Mother,

I would not have exchanged my fate with any earthly king’s.