Ballad

A hundred ballads I have written,
All of my own feelings.
Thus I have kept my promise
To the one who pressed me dearly.
I have named myself properly;
Whether this one wants to know it or not,
In this the hundredth,
I have set my name in writing.

I beg those who have read them,
And those who will read them,
Wherever they are recited,
That they be taken as entertainment,
Without bad glossing:
For I intend only good by it,
And in the last verse, properly,
Thave set my name in writing.

I did not do them for reward,
Nor for any payment,
But from among my thoughts
I have chosen, and very gently
Breathed into them my understanding
To make them worthy of renown;
Not without good reason, therefore,
I have set my name in writing.