1. At length it was Job who spoke, cursing the day of his birth. This is what he said:

3. Cursed be the day I was born, and the night which whispered: A boy has been conceived.

4. May that day be dark, may God on high ignore it. May no light shine upon it.

5. May the shadow of death claim it as its own. May a cloud settle over it; may blackness obstruct its light.

6. Let darkness swallow that night let it not add to the rest of the year let it not be included in the month.

7. That night - oh, let it be barren, untouched by shouts of joy.

8. Let it be cursed by those who hate the light, sorcerers who call on the Devil.

9. Let its morning stars no longer shine; let it wait for light in vain and never see the first rays of dawn,

10. since it did not close the womb to keep my eyes from seeing doom.

11. Why didn't I die at birth, or come from the womb without breath?

12. Why the knees that received me, why the breasts that suckled me?

13. For then I should have lain down asleep and been at rest

14. with kings and rulers of the earth who built for themselves lonely tombs;

15. or with princes who had gold to spare and houses stuffed with silver.

16. Why was I not stillborn, like others who did not see the light of morn?

17. There the trouble of the wicked ceases, there the weary find repose.

18. There the prisoners are at ease; they no longer hear the taskmaster's voice.

19. Great and small fare equally there, where the slave is free from his master.

20. Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the embittered?

21. To those who long for death more than for hidden treasure?

22. They rejoice at the sight of their end, they are happy upon reaching the grave.

23. Why give light to a man whose path has vanished, whose ways God blocks at every side?

24. Instead of bread I feed on sighs. My groans are like water poured out.

25. For what I fear has come upon me, what I dread has befallen me.

26. I find no rest, I find no ease; only turmoil, nothing of peace!





“Não abandone sua alma à tentação, diz o Espírito Santo, já que a alegria do coração é a vida da alma e uma fonte inexaurível de santidade.” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina