A youthful shepherd, wandering and feeling

far from his heart's content, goes sad and lonely,

his thoughts on one he loves, and for her only

his breast pierced by love's wound, deep and unhealing.

He weeps-not for the blows that love keeps dealing—

no, he has no regrets for the affliction

that tears him so: he weeps for his eviction

from her remembrance. How his heart is reeling

to know that she forgets him who is kneeling

before her! Just to think she has refused him

sends him afar, where strangers have abused him,

his breast pierced by love's wound, deep and unhealing.

He cries, “Unlucky she, forever steeling

herself against my love, she who retires

when I approach, frustrating my desires,

my breast pierced by love's wound, deep and unhealing!”

See him there where, at last, himself revealing

on a tree's branches, by fair arms extended,

he clings aloft, although his life has ended,

his breast pierced by love's wound, deep and unhealing.