Quan plau a Déu [English translation]

When God wants the ship's wood to break down,

In the safest of ports, He breaks anchors and rigs

And, for minor ills, I see many a man go down:

No man is certain of how things will turn out.

The wise man has no greater advantage

Than his thought, which relies less on chance.

I see both experience and common sense fail:

Fortune and fact manipulate them at their will.