LXXX
NOT HEALTH, IGNORANCE

You toss and turn from one side to the other
in search of rest; you cannot find it either
on your right or on your left, and your bed
becomes a rocking horse. But remember

when in your public life you criticized
all those whose souls were consumed
by sadness, so do not make it worse with
facile diatribes. The one who presumes

to know it all is like the man who boasts
about his health and insults a poor sick patient
by turning his strength into arrogance;

the day will come when the healthy
braggart will collapse, and it will be obvious
that it wasn’t health, but ignorance.