1. With my father who praises her figure
When she sways with grace like a willow branch

2. She spoke and smiled with a radiance
That shone like gems between her lips

3. So let me drink deep of pure wine
On the day we meet, not mundanity

4. A pearl or blossom or flower
Choose me, embrace me, pluck me

5. And I praised a king of noble birth
Pure of heart, generous and kind

6. Supreme in gifts and being, so I say
And compose verses, praising him

7. While others beg encounters and praise
Yet from them he's free of need

8. A king whose protection the land sought
Else poetry were of no worth

9. You seek fine jewels, as life decays
While he seeks but words from me

10. Spare me pride in this weary task
Where even songbirds outdo me

11. Stop at the door of the finest king
My songbird, and ease my ache

12. My lord, after your promised aid
Ask not about my tested state

13. The maid and I in hunger's throes
Our tongues silenced and dulled

14. Bared now by time that we never knew
In any age or eon

15. I understand not her complaints
She understands not mine

16. But I know her suffering
And she knows agony is mine

17. To your door we limp and plead
Yours to extend your charity

18. Long may you live in joy and aid
With gentle hands outstretched to us