1. I sell you for the price of worthless leather,
And fold up my love for you like a scroll.

2. I shake off your burden from my shoulders,
For long has your mountain weighed upon me.

3. Your words snap like the cracking of a whip,
Your glances sting like the blow of a cane.

4. You changed against me, though it pained me;
I'd have said then: "There is no changing this."

5. But you had been an adornment on my arms,
A necklace about my neck, a ring on my hand.

6. No man is hindered by what does not fetter him;
If the veins of his wrists are unbound.

7. You set up the pole of love to entrap me,
Vainly did you hope, O contriver of snares!

8. You did not know that I am like the wild ox,
Who splits the rope if it touches his side.

9. And you imagined what difficulty had altered,
Foolishly led on by this fancy of yours.

10. You nearly made the man of letters stumble,
But a heart from error evermore free saved him.

11. Boastfully did my vanity garb me,
And abased me and brought me low.

12. The most abject of the abject is he,
Who panders to the dalliance of women.

13. I carried in my heart the courage of heroes,
As I cut my way through impenetrable mountains.

14. He who escapes from the like of her,
Lives secure afterward safe from all legions.

15. I left behind me the others subject to love,
To strike with the stroke of driving camels.