1. I recalled days now passed and nights long gone,
When my prime of life away with them had flown!

2. My dignity they usurped, my bashfulness,
Made me forget what once was sweet and dear.

3. Made me forget, until my people and kin,
I was but a lovesick bard, distraught, forlorn.

4. Crazed was I, madly in love, all caution to the wind...
When love was fresh, desires were new each morn.

5. Time has passed, would that it had remained,
Would that it were still that lovely time of yore!

6. As if I were angel in Paradise laid,
Yearning for eternal life evermore.

7. No more did I seek the company of man,
Ruin or glory... Nay, but cold and distant I became.

8. To me they both were paltry, nothing worth,
When love would stir in me hopes and desires.

9. They were beauties of pride and dignity,
Who chose none but the exceptional and grand.

10. If they chose, they chose none but the refined,
Or the generous, who gratis gifts would hand.

11. To him alone their radiance they would give,
Lighting his verse, kindling the ecstasies.

12. If he would pen it as a precious jewel,
Its verses would solace souls in agony.

13. His words were supple like fresh verdant plants,
Melodies would trill, meanings ascend on high.

14. No cheap floozy did they ever embrace,
Only the elite of suitors they would draw nigh.

15. One day I said to a beauty who had glanced at me,
Yearning, stealing away my thoughts in a sigh:

16. "Does not what you hide have an ending, frightening,
That terrifies, folding the hearts in fear?"

17. She replied, hot tears streaming, revealing,
A love that fiercely within her did lie:

18. "I nearly forgot my honor in loving you,
Though reason was my guide in passion's sea.

19. If you never forgot virtue, you shielded me,
Preferring from me chastity and propriety.

20. I see you as my soul, nay, of greater worth,
So how can one turn away from the cupbearer's wine?

21. Days passed by us, then disguised themselves,
Oh cursed life that savors tragedies!

22. It reduces the jolly man to idle frivolity,
Making libertines of free and noble ladies.

23. ...After my devotion,
And after I had grown accustomed to seeing the garden decayed!

24. She knew the me of present and days gone by,
She hesitated... Not all beauties are like her,

25. Leave behind days that have passed, disappointing.
For you have the best in me, so purify my heart,

26. That longs to see you, living in hopes for years,
Content with the wishes you fulfill, ecstasies you stir.

27. By what I endured from her I was saddened,
And by what she endured - my mind found rest!

28. She regretted the fading of her youth,
And regretted what had marred her prime.

29. She reached the depths of sadness,
Returning like one gone astray, stumbling blind.

30. Do not grieve, for I am faithful in love,
And I know it best, visions most clear...

31. I love you, so that I see none but you in my dreams,
However you are, wherever you rest your head.

32. So I said to her... Enough! For I am determined,
I shall not waver again in love's battle!

33. You will forget love and its foolishness,
You will cast love from you, no longer enthralled!

34. You think that your love is undying,
But no - since love was, it has been fleeting!

35. Worldly life - how it twists the truth in passion,
And in feeling - how it bends fanciful thoughts!

36. I was - woe to me - a poet turned from his course,
My guide. And if blamed, a defiant debater!

37. I see my reality as a garden, so I wander
Through barren imagination... How astray!