How many are there, tired of life,
Sick of regret, dead of boredom,
They make laughter like the suicidal actor,
Without finding, for your evil, remedy!
Oh! How many times have you cried when you laugh!
Nobody in the joy of laughing laughs,
Because in the things that pain devours
The soul cries when the face laughs!
If faith dies, if calmness flees,
If our feet tread nothing but briars
Throw in the face of the tempest of the soul
A sad lightning: the smile.
The carnival of the world deceives so much,
That lives are brief masquerades;
Here we learn to laugh with tears,
And also to cry with laughter.