1. Though I swore to love, I'm no oath-breaker
For I'm still true to that ancient vow

2. The gossip told her I've stopped loving
Yet he spoke of something graver now

3. I never thought love made me unique
So how could she find none like me, or other two or three?

4. I'm plagued by a fool who knows not of love
Or one who questions love’s mystery

5. "Does passion move the youth?" he asks
"For me," I said, "a thousand passions seethe"

6. My heart is divided between rosy cheek
And languid eyelid when dawn comes to wake

7. Vintage wine of love, decanted before Adam
So she deemed our love an ancient bequest

8. I'm drunk with her, sated with joy
At the pounding pulse and the clasping thighs

9. A noble girl with whom I reveled
While others caroused with the harlot caste

10. She claimed me while my youth still gathered
Before the fates could wreak their havoc

11. I answered love's call, readily obeying
No stubborn walker on that pilgrimage was I

12. I cared not for the critic's blame in love
Yet hearing blame is still calamity

13. By God, the years have sundered our bond
And the nights' caprice has ravaged it away

14. My patience left its dwelling place
And I knew it would not linger overlong

15. I said to my heart, "How fare you now?"
It said, "Spare your words, I'll stay no more."