1. You started by mentioning me, and kept at it,
While I stayed silent, neither whispering nor speaking.

2. And that was not out of stinginess with affection for a man
Who gifted me with it, but out of shyness before him.

3. Now that it's right to repay, I could not
Speak anything but the most splendid praise.

4. How could I deny virtue its proper place,
Or ignore the sun's light after basking in its glow?

5. It was you who brought honor to my name and anointed me
With words that slipped the muzzle of illusion off me.

6. The precedence is yours over me in merit, so don
The garment of it, for the merit goes to the first to come forward.

7. And below it, O son of noblemen, is a poem
Of verse whose excellence has veiled it with your praise.