Man lives and dies

By the same power.

Water sustains life and drowns life.

Fire kindles life and consumes life.

 

Why, God, must life end?

Why must You give life

And take life in the same way?

Why must man suffer thus?

 

How can water be the source

Of life and suffering?

Water, the Energy of God,

Is the Angel of Death.

 

How can fire be the source

Of vitality and pain?

Fire, the Spirit of God,

Is the Breath of the Apocalypse.

 

Yet how can water and fire coexist?

How, in the balance of life,

Can they inhabit the human soul

Without consuming one another?

 

For the water and fire of life

Are not of human nature, but divine nature:

For the water burns the soul,

And the fire flows over the heart.