'[CB 1] [CB25] O Fortuna [English translation]

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!