She.

1311.

From thy regard all womankind

Enjoys an equal grace;

O thou of wandering fickle mind,

I shrink from thine embrace!

1312.

One day we silent sulked; he sneezed:

The reason well I knew;

He thought that I, to speak well pleased,

Would say, 'Long life to you!'

He.

1313.

I wreathed with flowers one day my brow,

The angry tempest lowers;

She cries, 'Pray, for what woman now

Do you put on your flowers?

1314.

'I love you more than all beside,'

'Twas thus I gently spoke;

'What all, what all?' she instant cried,

And all her anger woke.

1315.

'While here I live, I leave you not,'

I said to calm her fears.

She cried, 'There, then, I read your thought';

And straight dissolved in tears.

1316.

'Each day I called to mind your charms.'

'O, then, you had forgot,'

She cried, and then her opened arms,

Forthwith embraced me not.

1317.

She hailed me when I sneezed one day;

But straight with anger seized,

She cried, 'Who was the woman, pray,

Thinking of whom you sneezed?'

1318.

And so next time I checked my sneeze;

She forthwith wept and cried,

(That woman difficult to please,)

'Your thoughts from me you hide.'

1319.

I then began to soothe and coax,

To calm her jealous mind;

'I see,' quoth she, 'to other folks

How you are wondrous kind.'

1320.

I silent sat, but thought the more,

And gazed on her. Then she

Cried out, 'While thus you eye me o'er,

Tell me whose form you see.'