1. Alas, how I wish I knew how my bird
Became caged with you without happy omens.

2. And why another took my place, enjoying your company,
While I was dismissed, my heart suppressed and silent.

3. Who was it that turned from me to you
And created an idol, a strange, forbidden form?

4. Was my crime no more than that I,
Abstaining from wine, avoided what is forbidden?

5. To God I complain that because of my piety
I avoided the forbidden and became outcast.

6. I will give myself to wine and to my passion;
So say to the critic, "Be gentle or be unfair."

7. I will drink long draughts, knowing that though
I am an outcast, I shall be recompensed.