By chance it was I met my love
   It did me much surprise
   Down by a shady myrtle grove
   Just as the sun did rise.
   The birds they sang right gloriously
   And pleasent was the air
   And there was non save she and I
   among the flowers fair.
  
   In dewy grass and green we walked
   She timid was and coy
   How can'st thou choose but pity me
   My pretty pearl, my joy
   How comes it that thou stroll this way?
   Sweet maiden tell me true
   Before bright Phoebus' glittering ray
   Has supped the morning dew?
  
   I go to tend the flocks I love
   The ewes and tender lambs
   That pasture by the myrtle grove
   That gambol by their dams
   There I enjoy a pure content
   At dawning of the day
   Then, hand in hand, we lovers went
   To see the flock at play.
  
   And as we wended down the road
   I said to her, "Sweet maid,
   Three years I in my place abode
   And three more must be stayed
   The three that I am bound so fast
   O fairest wait for me
   And when the weary years are past
   Then wedded we will be."
  
   "Three years are long, three times too long
   Too lengthy the delay"
   And then I answered in my song
   "Hope wastes them quick away
   Where love is fervent, fain and fast
   And knoweth not decay
   There nimbly fleet the seasons past
   Accounted as one day."