I am a workman

Again and yet again I ask if maybe

You and I can live as cheap as one:

I add up all the tally of my wages

To see if there’s a way it can be done.

My heart would have you wed to me forever,

Sharing all the good and ill that’s due:

I’m worn out with putting this together,

With counting and recounting funds for two.

I would live my old age out in peace,

Thinking of the kids, of my true wife:

My heart is broken with such cares as these,

I’m a workman, that sums up my life.

Armijn Pane
tr. after Damais