I

Lovely pearl, which it pleases a prince to set radiantly in gold so bright: I declare assuredly that I never found her equal in value among those of the orient. So round, so lovely in every setting, her sides were so slender, so smooth; wherever I judged bright gems, I set her apart in uniqueness. Alas! I lost her in a garden; through the grass to the ground it slipped from me. I languish, grievously wounded by the power of my love for that spotless pearl of mine.

[13] Since it sprang from me in that place, I have often watched, longing for that precious thing which used formerly to dispel my sorrow and increase my happiness and all my well-being – that oppresses my heart grievously, [and] causes my breast to swell and burn in sorrow. Never yet did a song seem to me to have such sweetness as a moment of peace let steal over me. In truth there used to come fleetingly to me many [such moments]. To think of her complexion clad, as now, in mud! O earth, you disfigure a beautiful jewel, my own spotless pearl.

[25] That place is bound to be overspread with spice-bearing plants, where such wealth has run to decay; yellow and blue and red blooms shine there most brightly towards the sun. Flower and fruit cannot be faded where it [i.e. the pearl] sank down into the dun clods, for every plant must grow from dead seeds; otherwise no wheat would be brought to the homes [i.e. brought in, harvested]. Every good thing always has its origin in a good thing: so lovely a seed could not fail to be productive, so that flourishing spice plants would not shoot up from that precious spotless pearl.

[37] I entered that green garden, that place which I describe in words, in August on a festival, when corn is cut with sharp sickles. On the grave-mound where the pearl had rolled down, these bright and beautiful plants cast a shadow: gillyflower, ginger, and gromwell, and peonies scattered everywhere at intervals. If it was lovely to look at, still fairer was the scent that wafted from it, where that precious one lives, I believe and know, my precious spotless pearl.