1. You alone, none other, stirs my song and love poetry,
And I lend my ear though others chide and blame.

2. Who consoles a heart you never knew, though censurers disparage it?
Tears for you once flowing have furrowed my cheek.

3. Your phantom came gliding up, vaulting my abode.
Ask my heart then if it saw in you any change.

4. A sincere counselor, above suspicion, chided long,
Yet futilely; greater than to speak calumny.

5. You spoke in good faith, though my heart accepted naught.
How eschew the love of one pledged to destroy all people?

6. How oft he sang, then coiled up as a wine-skin,
Defending the whites and the swarthy slaves.

7. I wonder, did his glances rain down swords or paper strips?
Did his wrists steal the boughs’ bending and sway?

8. Does his fatigue sap the strength of the valiant knight?
Did his cups contain wine drafts and honey mead?

9. Like merits of virtue gathered in the scion of nobles.
His fingers once active would shame even treetops.

10. What blessings of his do people relate!
What dark gloom enfolds the slave girls’ rumps!

11. Leaving his peers in toil, he climbed over pack-saddles
And further displayed his poise against calamity.

12. Had your eyes seen him in his finery,
You’d have beheld lightning flash in the rain cloud.

13. Or, if he drew sword on the battle day,
You'd say the lion of the thicket had leapt up.

14. My lord, your ode fulfills its purpose, being sore tried,
And you asked me to respond, so I complied.