1. Alas! Return to the covenant you made
And do not leave me in torment forever

2. I did not abandon your love on purpose
But I fear whom I worship

3. I love you but fear you - for love
Is fearful, though some good may lie therein

4. Yet it matters not, your nearness or intent
If you have no wish to be close

5. My friends make merry over me while I
Revel, though grief and longing make me weep

6. Why then blame me for one who knows no better
When my heart is pierced with sorrow?

7. Of what use is it that I keep silent?
That I am chaste and stoically patient?

8. Many a night I have stayed up for pleasure
With tears streaming down my cheeks

9. My thoughts and worries - my companions -
Hover around you, darker than night

10. I fear what people may say about us
So I hide even from you my secret and distance myself

11. And I minimize to myself the agony
Of separation, deeming distance wiser and more correct

12. How can I feel at ease with you unless
I unlock my heart, now barred and boarded up?

13. A turbulent sea rises between us
Where death throes roar and thunder

14. I fear that I may board this frightful voyage
While my soul is dragged towards it and turns red

15. So I approach while so much hope lies in you
And turn away while so many horrors lie in wait for my soul

16. And I fear fancy whenever each dream is fearful
And I fear perdition whenever everything lies threatened

17. You have distracted me from all other pleasures
However gentle and kind to every suitor

18. The birds of hearts cry out - all except yours
Whose song exhausts the land and trills

19. Like the morning breeze, you are easygoing
Welcoming whatever appears before you and cold

20. Have you not seen how the flowers are watered
And how the next day the thorns attack them?

21. You admire their beauty but then
They wilt when tossed by hand

22. Likewise, after a while, they wither and die
So do not be for every desire an unreachable goal

23. And do not give affection to one not worthy of it
For not every shining water is a source