How with a poisonous barb you have
Almost torn my jaws to pieces!
Ceaselessly my ear is droning from
     Your martyring stab;
You are the torture and burden of my nerves:
     A curse upon you!

  When we are struck by the burning and frost of fever,
When it pinches here and there in bone and marrow,
Then sympathy and comfort are given to us
     By the neighbour’s heart;
To hellish agony, however, you add
     Yet the pain of derision!

  Chills course ice-cold over my chin;
I hurl the chairs hither and thither;
Around the fire with merry spirit
     The little brood dances,
A swarm of bumblebees – ah, I am all
     Insanity and fury!

  Among all the plagues upon the earth,
Failed harvest, little money,
The guild of miscreants that sets up nets
     With cunning and diligence,
And of everything that usually ruins our happiness:
     You take the prize!

 ... 

  Oh sulphurous head in the fiery palace,
Who has given birth to agony,
And wishes that fog and mire
     Cause woe upon earth;
Give everyone who hates old Scotland
     Your pain for a whole year!