1. By your life, the polished bat was never accustomed to its sanding
The glistening ball attracts light when she returns to it

2. It was set straight, filled, and its leather was softened
In the direction of prosperity, and its stubbornness was amenable

3. It was chosen from an orchard a branch for it
So it came to be as desired, and its bleaching succeeded

4. With its peel it was tanned, yet
The youth is pleased by its coming and refusal of his advances

5. When the star of the caller ignites upon it, and it is divided
Its sides mourn and its fuel kindles

6. The young men carry it around, east and west
And it was feared in it that its boundaries would be violated

7. And the extremities of its unruly self betrayed it
So their hands complain of the bat through its hide

8. You see the ball moved toward it as if
It is led, though there is nothing that leads it

9. And in each polished bat it encounters
Like toilers of a breed whose pacts are not betrayed

10. The opponents wish to break it out of envy for it
And every young man who comes to the ball is jealous of it

11. With glory, something with which the young man prevails
When the meanings’ black and white become confused

12. And in people there is melting, and they sang though it had not been
A temptation, their melting and their blackness