NAY but you, who do not love her,   Is she not pure gold, my mistress? Holds earth aught—speak truth—above her?   Aught like this tress, see, and this tress, And this last fairest tress of all, So fair, see, ere I let it fall? Because, you spend your lives in praising;   To praise, you search the wide world over: Then why not witness, calmly gazing,   If earth holds aught—speak truth—above her? Above this tress, and this, I touch But cannot praise, I love so much!