The firm will that my heart enters
can't be scraped by beak nor by nail
of slanderer who damns with ill speaking his soul;
since I don't dare beat them with bough or rod,
at least, secretly, where I won't have any uncle,
I'll enjoy pleasure, in the garden or in the room.

When I remember the room
where, to my scorn, I know no man enters
-instead they are all to me more than brother or uncle-
I have no limb that doesn't shake, not even the finger-nail,
just as a child is before the rod:
such is my fear of not being close to her soul.

Were I close to her body, not to her soul,
were she to let me hide in her room,
since it hurts my heart more than strike of rod
that her servant isn't there where she enters:
I'll be with her what flesh is to nail
and I won't follow advice of friend or of uncle.

Not even the sister of my uncle
did I love more or as much, by this soul,
since, as the finger is close to the nail,
if she pleases, I want to be to her room:
of me can do the love that my heart enters
more with its will than a strong man with a frail rod.

Since when flourished the withered rod
and from Adam sprung nephew and uncle,
a love as good as the one that my heart enters
I don't think has ever been in any body or soul:
wherever I am, out in the plains or in a room,
my heart doesn't part from her more than a nail.

So clings and is fixed, like with nail,
my heart to her like the bark to the rod,
she is to me tower, palace and room;
and I don't love as much parent, brother or uncle,
and in Paradise will have double joy my soul,
if anyone there for good-loving enters.

Arnaut sends forth this song of uncle and nail
to Great Desire, which of his rod holds the soul,
a framework-song which, learned, the room enters.