Lonh

When the days are long in May

The sweet song of birds from afar Seems lovely to me

And when I have left there

I remember a distant love

I walk bent and bowed with desire

So much so that neither song nor Hawthorn flower

Please me more than the icy winter.

Never will I enjoy love

If I do not enjoy this distant love

For a nobler or better one I do not know

Anywhere, neither near nor far

So high is its true, real price

That there, in the kingdom of the Saracens

I wish to be proclaimed her captive.

Sad and joyous, I will separate from her

When I see that distant love

But I know not when I will see her

For our lands are too far away

There are so many passages and paths

And in this I am no seer

But let everything be according to God's will.

I will feel joy for sure when I ask her

For the love of God the distant love

And if it pleases her I will live

Near her even if I am from far away

Then will come our faithful meeting

When I, the faraway lover, will be so near

That I will console myself with her beautiful words.

I really trust in the Lord

Through whom I will see the distant love

But for something that fails me

I have two sorrows for she is so far away

Ah, if only I were a pilgrim there

So that my stick and my bundle

Could be seen by her lovely eyes.

God who made everything that comes and goes

And formed this distant love,

Grant me the power of my heart

Soon to see the distant love

Truly in a propitious place

And that the room and garden

Always appear as palaces to me.

He speaks true who says I am avid

And longing for the distant love

For no joy gives me pleasure

Like the pleasure of the distant love

But what I want is forbidden to me

So my godfather endowed me that though loving

I will not have been loved

But what I want is forbidden to me

So may my godfather be cursed

Who made me not to be loved.