Love's Complaint

I have pain in my heart which often torments me:
Love wounded me
so cruelly with his arrow
that I cannot live much longer
if I do not have relief
from this suffering.
So have pity on me
lovely Lady!
may I have joy from you,
for I love you with a loyal heart.


I will never repent of loving
on account of the suffering which I have to endure.
Oh, Lady with the bright countenance,
it pleases me so much to gaze at your beauty
that all of my thoughts are centered on you,
and I will never want to take my heart away.
I beg that you deign to remember me,
for you I cannot forget.

He who complains of love
has never truly loved,
for no one who loves well
has ever grumbled against love.
Loyal lovers never feign love,
nor do they ever complain
day or night of love's sweet pains,
no matter how much they suffer.
For he who has good heart
will find such a great sweetness in love
that he will never feel the pain.
Thus will my heart never,
in spite of what anyone may say,
abandon the one who possesses me entirely.
It is ever there,
in truth, never will it leave,
for when it has discovered love's pain,
it will find the benefits very sweet:
how very sweet they are!

"Love's Illusion" Montpellier Codex 13th C.