Sol 6

  1. Tell me, and hear the truth from me.

    Have you known my pure, steadfast love?

  2. My love, inspired by you in me,

    Beloved of my heart and the depths of its lifeblood.

  3. How lost love and the world together would be

    If you knew nothing of my passion.

  4. I show my love and hide it, yet no

    Ear listens, and no heart softens.

  5. I speak to it in private and lament its love,

    While the one I mean is sparing with love.

  6. Tell me, now that distance has grown so great

    And we have parted: do you remember my pledge?

  7. And if my name happens to come up,

    Do you listen closely, or do you not hear?

  8. And when I recite a poem born of flame,

    Do you understand its longing and yearning?

  9. They wronged me and persisted—woe to them!

    In the name of medicine, am I to become a prisoner?

  10. If they knew, my heart’s desire, my cure would be

    Your sweet saliva—but where, where is it?

  11. One sip of it, if I could obtain it,

    Would spare me the medicine penicillin.

  12. For the heart’s wounds might heal through it.

    Do you know this, my life?

  13. Two years have passed, and how harsh they have been.

    My eyes have not seen that brow of yours.

  14. And life has slipped by without my quenching my thirst

    From you, except through wishing and sighing.

  15. If only I knew how often I speak to you in private; yet

    What use are whispered words if you do not hear?

  16. If that poetry should stir

    Your gentle heart, what would you do?

  17. Remember my sincere affection,

    Which the turns of years cannot change.

  18. And remember me as a faithful companion

    Who would accept no substitute or lover in your place.

  19. So grant him love and give him his due:

    A life of love is a clear paradise.

  20. How sweet it is to live in its embrace!

    Whoever tastes it tastes the life of the immortals.

  21. Every heart is incomplete without it,

    And a heart’s fullness lies in love and a companion.

  22. And in the mingling of soul with soul, just as

    Red wine is mixed with clear water.

  23. So make your home in this heart, its mistress,

    And dwell in it; it is a safe refuge.

Sol 6