1. If love offered no other advantage but to make one more gay and more courtly, better in discourse and more sociable, and more able to recognise the noble among the vile, and to perceive what is falsehood and what truth, and to distinguish in advance between annoyance and pleasure, then since love can bestow such a rich reward, no person should refuse to love.
II. Therefore, my lady, it seems to me, since love is the blossom and fruit of all blessings, that if high birth and beauty advise you not to love, they have advised you ill: the more God and worth increase your merit, the greater should be your condescension. But (your rank) is so far above me that I can in no wise reach it, nor is your honour willing to descend so low.
III. And since I love the most gracious creature that my eyes ever beheld, I should find mercy, indeed I should, if it pleased her, for when she profits by all good qualities, I wait for condescension to enter her heart so that she may give me without seeking the joy which by seeking I cannot hope to have; since I dare to aspire to her, my wish is ever to reject and to refuse unseemly conduct.
IV. Love and joy have so ensnared and caught me in her true heart, so gay and courtly, where pleasure is and youth and beauty and her dear worth which is the flower of the most highly prized, that the happiness I feel cannot be contained in me. Consider then what delight love would bring me if it gave me joy, for now by merely listening to her voice I experience so many thousand joys that the man of rank would be my inferior.
V. To you, fair lady, Countess of Burlatz, through whom merit is born and lives and has its being and has mustered its strength in every sphere, I dedicate my song, for your worth increases always; wheresoever you dwell, there merit, youth, delight and pleasure can never decline, for as the wind spreads the flame afar, so do I see your reputation surpass the best.
VI. Make yourself known, o song, to My Surety, and tell her, for it will please her, that no one is her superior in speech, understanding and song, since she strives hard to learn.
VII. Most Gracious, though I am slow to visit you, no one but you has power over me henceforth, nor do I compose a song for giving or selling, but only for you, if you deign to learn it.
VIII. Sweet friend, I see flatterers advance themselves: they speak fair to you and afterwards condemn you.
