Obrigado

To those who give me a place on the tram
And whom I know not from where,

To those who bid me a tender farewell
Without even knowing their names,

To those who call me a congressman
When I'm not even a juror,

To those who, even when I write something worthless, praise me: master!

To those who judge me as a cousin
Of the king of the bean or of Hindustan,

To those who think I'm a millionaire
If I get a raise

- and to those who ignore me
Without the slightest argument,

To those who don't know I exist,
Even when I watch over them,

To those who hide their faces from me
Allergic and stingy with affection,

To those who label me as ultra-bohemian
For claiming to come from Scotland,

To those who vomit my poems
Seeing problems in the simplest things,

To those who, knowing I'm poorer,
Would deny me cloth or copper

- I humbly thank
Such varied and divergent gestures,

Thanks to which, in two minutes,
Like the smoke of cigars,
I ascend to the heavens, then return to the ground,
For everything and nothing are nothing.