TRIPLUM:
Love which has the power
To make me have
Joy or dark death,
Does not through its grace make
My lady have the willingness
To care for me.
I cannot endure it for long
Because, for loving faithfully
And serving happily
And thinking it no trouble
And keeping it sensibly hidden
I have no comfort or relief
For my harsh pain;
So, as I most humbly
Suffer and endure it,
My heart is that much more harshly
Treated, so that I shall shortly
Die painfully
Of grief and passion,
And I am kept that much further away
From mercy and that much more estranged 
From my pure lady.
But with all these troubles
Love, which is dear to me, suffers;
For Reason, Right,
Sweetness, Nobility,
Honesty, Grace and Pity
Have no power over Cruelty;
And so there reigns and endures
In a body endowed with humility
A heart which is full of harshness
And of deceit,
A denial which has taken away
The sustenance of hope from me,
And a Power which has despised
Me without cause and so tormented me
That it has led me through disdain
To destruction.

MOTETUS:
False Appearance has deceived me
And held me in hope
Of having joy and mercy;
And I like a madman believed it
And put in it all my faith
Of her loving desire.
Alas! She has forgotten me
When she had time and power
To give me relief;
And in no way has she recognised
My pain or my torment
But rather has left me tottering.

TENOR:
I have seen the Lord.