"How many are those who, tired of life,
ill with grief, dead with tedium,
make others laugh like the suicidal actor,
not finding a remedy for their ailment!
Ah! How many times do we cry while laughing!
On the joy of laughter no one should rely upon!
for in those individuals who are devoured by pain
their soul cries while their face laughs!
If faith dies, if calmness flees,
If the soles of our feet step only over thistle,
the tempest of the soul casts into the countenance
a sorrowful flash of lightning: the smile.
The carnival of the world is so deceitful
that lives are but brief masquerades;
here, we learn to laugh while weeping
and also to cry with peals of laughter"
-From "Laugh While Weeping" by Juan de Dios Peza.