Don’t tear at your heart
Because you feel sad and hollow,
Tangled in the depressing net of pessimism.
Glossing over your weaknesses is no panacea!
Tackle instead your fears, your gloomy thoughts.
Remember: as goes the open secret,
Life is a constant struggle.

Fear and despair are real tares.
Don’t let them spring up
In the fertile soil of your soul.
Those nocuous feelings might ruin
Your self-control and confidence.
Remember: as goes the open secret,
Life is a constant struggle.

Don’t tear at your heart
Because you often stumble
And your life is falling apart;
Because your dreams merely collapse
As a sand castle erased by tidal waves.
Remember: as goes the open secret,
Life is a constant struggle.

Without a doubt, drugs, alcohol, etc.
Are those bad palliative media
That give you very fragile wings
To fly above, not all the way through,
The strong whirlwind of difficulties.
Remember: as goes the open secret,
Life is a constant struggle.

Don’t tear at your heart
Because you are forsaken and lonely.
Wipe away your tears and be strong, so as
To forbid your soul from splashing in the mud
Of love’s disappointments and betrayals.
Remember: as goes the open secret,
Life is a constant struggle.

The finest psychologist or psychic
Will not be able to heal your wounded spirit,
If you don’t find in your whole inner being
The strength, the power to battle
The pessimism imbedded in you.
Remember: as goes the open secret,
Life is a constant struggle.

Raymond Gnanwo Hounfodji