Rubies are precious; sapphires are enchanting; silver and gold are bartered for by merchants: these all take man's fancy, men slay one another in pursuit of them; yet I will boast about you and treasure what you offer more than I would a precious jewel.
Your hands are trained to do us good; your right hand offers us choice food and your left hand offers us drink. You gladden our mornings with your smiles, our afternoons are refreshed as by a cold breeze and at twilight you satisfy us with pleasures. Where ever we pass, people turn to have second look at us; they marvel in awe. Your rebuke means insight for us; the listening ears are nourished and the discerning mind receives wisdom.
With all diligence, the birds of the air look after their young; they nourish them with grain from man's field: yet as soon as they sprout wings, they are abandoned! Their rights are violated without anyone's intervention. They are treated like a long forgotten path that the foot of man has abandoned. Not so with you, even in our old age you welcome us, you overlook our grey hair, you spread your fragrance around us like the blossoming vine; even when we are well in years, you prune us and we bear fruit like the fig tree!
The cheetah boasts about its swiftness; the fastest are its victims, its preys on them without mercy. As they flee headlong from its power, it claps its hands in derision and hisses them out of their place: yet I will boast about your love; the waters from the rivers are not pure; the seas have their waters polluted b