1. Life is short and sorrowfulfor every living soul.
2. We are flowers that fadeand shadows that vanish.
3. And so, I ask you, God,why pick on me?
4. There's no way a humancan be completely pure.
5. Our time on earth is brief;the number of our daysis already decided by you.
6. Why don't you leave us aloneand let us find some happinesswhile we toil and labour?
7. When a tree is chopped down,there is always the hopethat it will sprout again.
8. Its roots and stump may rot,
9. but at the touch of water,fresh twigs shoot up.
10. Humans are different—we die, and that's the end.
11. We are like streams and lakesafter the water has gone;
12. we fall into the sleep of death,never to rise again,until the sky disappears.
13. Please hide me, God,deep in the ground—and when you are angry no more,remember to rescue me.
14. Will we humans live again?I would gladly sufferand wait for my time.
15. My Creator, you would want me;you would call out,and I would answer.
16. You would take care of me,but not count my sins—
17. you would put them in a bag,tie it tight,and toss them away.
18. But in the real world,mountains tumble,and rocks crumble;
19. streams wear away stonesand wash away soil.And you destroy our hopes!
20. You change the way we look,then send us away,wiped out for ever.
21. We never live to knowif our children are praisedor disgraced.
22. We feel no pain but our own,and when we mourn,it's only for ourselves.