Жүректе қайрат болмаса

  If an empty heart is accompanied

By a lack of reason and will,

The immortal light of the soul will fade

And your human worth will be nil.

It skims o’er the surface, my will-less mind

And no longer can sound the depths.

O my friends, my spirit is worn and tired

‘Tis indeed high time that it slept.

When you curb the urges of mortal flesh

‘Tis with pity you bid them adieu.

But if you should fall in your flesh’s snare

The one to be pitied is you.

For then you become a senseless brute

Whose soul is both dark and dim.

Whosoever fails to fathom the depths,

Life loses all colour for him.

No more can I say that I am a man;

Surrounded by gloom, I stand.

How can I find any sense in life

When ignorance binds my land?

Translated by Dorian Rottenberg