1. I jested not with love, though withered my liver,
And jest's commencement is the end of all earnest.

2. His glance wounds me; how then could he heal?
He wearies me, since he sees not the wounded.

3. Hear thou my words and ask; thou'lt find
An inlet to explanation if thou ask.

4. I saw him and was stung. I hid my love,
Swifter to conceal it than a glance.

5. I turned from him, no weakling to be turned
Nor quits he me, unwearied to be quit.

6. I changed my road, and changed habitual
Pace of my feet, replacing and displaced.

7. Long was my night, and longer longing for
One who resembles dawn, but is no dawn.

8. Thou, so thou claimest, counsellest me aright,
Passionately loving, like my counselling.

9. If thou must chide, chide gently one who loves,
Not him who turned his face from high emprise.

10. Would he had kept his virtues in some time
Of hour auspicious—his sky had rained a shower.

11. Glory to Him who clothed the towering height
In calamus, now in a pen, now in a lance.

12. And who reserved it for the special few,
Safe from the common taint of ugliness.

13. If time forget again our olden pact,
Make no new contract, rather make an end.

14. When wounds are past, naught's left for ills to do
Save only exultation in the wounds.