1. O you who blame me for loving, cease!
No good is in one who does not love.

2. Do you blame me for who I am,
Captive to his love like one suspended?

3. My heart is bound by passion
In bonds that cannot be unloosed.

4. O you who've seen a youth like me
Seeking freedom while in fetters bound,

5. For love of a rose-cheeked girl
Lovely as the dawning sun when it rises,

6. When her name is called his tears flow,
When he passes by her door he kisses the wall and swoons,

7. When he remembers her he weeps
Till his soul is nearly snatched away.

8. You see him suffering so for her
Moaning, weeping, sighing,

9. This same affliction, brothers,
Comes to me night and day.

10. I am sunk in the pit of love,
Drowned and burned.

11. If I flee from love
I find it pursues and overtakes me.

12. Where can I flee from love,
Woe is me! It has hemmed me in.

13. I have no stratagem,
But I hope and I despair.

14. O my triumph, gather together
What of our lives has been scattered apart.

15. I cannot but love, I cannot help loving—
To some, love comes as their portion.

16. Love has subjected me to you,
The subjection of a slave who cannot be freed.

17. You have tortured my body with your love,
If it could speak it would complain to you

18. Weeping, pleading, flattering.