1. Create for me with your skill the compass,
In which your wondrous hands have made

2. Two blades aligned and balanced,
Free from defect on any side.

3. Two figures in one form ordained,
And joined with intellect composed.

4. Most alike are two things in their intertwining,
Like a companion who never wearies his friend.

5. Its rivet is most secure and concealed from
The eyes of critical beholders.

6. So one who examines it thinks it
Cast in a single mold poured out.

7. And the bringing together of its two halves, firmly,
Is the bringing together of a lover to his beloved.

8. Keener is its observer to guard over it,
The more he gives it careful turns.

9. So his saying, whenever one contemplates it:
"Blessed is he whose companion is blessed."

10. One with a finely wrought sight, gilded,
Which endless adornment does not distract.

11. From it truth is viewed, and truth is ever,
From it, sought as desirable.

12. Without it no form of a circle is sound,
Nor calculation found computed.

13. Truth is in it. If you incline
To other than it, calculation is approximate.

14. If Euclid's eye looked upon it, he would
Bow down before it poured out.

15. So send it to me, and spare it for me, with a ruler
To bring desire and praise into accord.

16. You continue to find and grant sagely gifts,
Bestowed generously upon a gifted friend.