The Mother-of-Pearl Shell
The mother-of-pearl shell forever weeps.
Out in the ocean, though man knows not,
Waves are high even without wind.
So she is rocked, tossing and rolling,
Without a course, and forever
Weeps in the depth of the sea.
One day, by chance, there got in the shell
An imperceptible grain of sand;
As she is tossed about by the waves,
It pricks her tender and sensitive flesh.
In pain from which she knows no escape,
The mother-of-pearl shell forever weeps.
Though silently she weeps,
Tears ooze out from her flesh
And bathe the little grain of sand.
Ah, those pure and heart-rending tears
That cover the pitiful grain of sand
And daily transform it into a gem!
But tossing and rolling forever she weeps.
The dawn that warms the eastern sky
With its rosy tint,
The moon that sails with its pale blue light
And the rainbow with its mysterious glow—
Bestow on the shell their precious gifts,
And, while the sand grows into a pearl,
Not knowing her fate and rocked by the waves,
The mother-of-pearl shell forever weeps.