1. I greeted her with a fragrant carnation
In a bouquet tied with silk

2. She took it with fingers that for it
Were water, while in it my heart blazed

3. How happy it made her, how wretched me!
Does the fate of one who melts equal that of another?

4. She bloomed, so I said “Good morning, my delight
You have risen with the face of the luminous one.”

5. She swayed gracefully and said “O youth
You watch me from behind a screen.”

6. And she smiled, so I thought the rose of her mouth
Breathed, and I smelled the scent of incense.

7. Until, when she placed the flowers of my bouquet
Against her breast, and it rustled like a stream,

8. I saw a blossom atop blossoms, fresh
And I inhaled a fragrance diffusing scents.

9. And I glanced at her—her forehead was delicate—
And I saw a rose above her cheek.

10. It released the varied aromas of my carnation
And the braided musk of her hair.

11. Our meeting and coming were in a convent
To hear an important mass held there.

12. A priest saw us and said “Tell me,
Why confess what is forgiven?”

13. I answered “If you had one like her
Among the lifeless, you'd choose the life of a monk.”

14. When I hear her speak I care not
For reciting the Bible or Psalms.