1. Reprove me less, for blame
makes even the clear fault vague,

2. And how many pieces of advice are unbearable in their nagging persistence
Why have you, my lady, sat sulking, finding fault with me

3. As if I were a demon, the agent of every misdoing?
Has the world become too narrow for me, or am I not confident

4. Of a resolution the spearpoint and blades caress?
When has a free man ever been abased whose face

5. the waters of honor have never tested?
I will be patient until patience knows that I

6. am its brother, the one its wings enfold,
And I will look to good times coming, for I see

7. life is only for those who can forgive it.
So I will give praise in earnest to Him who,

8. if I call, answers, or else his blessings delight me.
What is life if not honor, safety, wealth -

9. wealth of spirit - happy he whom this adorns!
And of the pride of young men: deliverance from sorrow

10. and freeing the fettered whom misery holds fast,
And a guest who has crossed the night asking where lives one

11. whose hospitality guides like a beacon,
So this free man relieved his hurt, his qualities

12. marvelous yet his exhortations judicious,
And the longing of one wronged who wished you present

13. though his flocks were scattered and his possessions plundered,
So you came to brave the night, bravely, to bring him aid,

14. and but for you none would have driven off his despoiler.
How many a foe has lain awake stoking his hatred

15. against me, as the flint-lighter fans the flame!
I have not hurt the noble nor harmed the base;

16. some evil the headlong flood drives on.
If I lack great wealth, yet I have great worth

17. whenever the crier calls the troops to arms.
The champions ride out bareheaded and clasp

18. hands with men on the spear-points.
No true man he who all night counts his profit,

19. miserly, grudging what enriches him;
Who believes he alone has rights over himself

20. and generosity with wealth brings shame.
His excuses for not eating are many,

21. his face pale and ugly as a raisin,
Full of gnawing worries, like a padlock

22. whose key is lost and cannot be opened.
Let no people gloat who have plotted against me

23. and found a way blocked by my weapons;
No sin lies with the grapevines if the smell

24. of their burning points to the guilty.
Deceit belongs to women, but your true enemy