In the time when the world leafs and flowers,
gentle lovers' walks are long
and joyous through the fields, to woods and bowers
where little birds delight them with their song.
Every man does service courteously:
They fall in love, of their own free will,
and every maiden spends this time in joy.
But I have wept and I am weeping still
since father goads me till I can't contain
my feelings of bewilderment and grief:
He wants me to accept, by force, a lord
not of my liking or of my accord.
So every hour I cry and live in pain —
And take no joy in any flower or leaf.
~