In the new season of Spring, when the hawthorn flowers,
Count Gui married the beautiful Argentine.
They were so well in one another’s arms under the bed-curtain
that he had six fair sons of her; then he began to be hostile to her
because he loved his maid Sabine better.
Whoever is wed to a bad husband
often has a sad heart.

‘Sabine’, says the Count, ‘I desire you.
I beseech you for your love: I offer you mine.
And if you deny me in this you will put me in torment.’
The fair one replies: ‘God forbid
that my youth be spent as a concubine.’
Whoever is wed to a bad husband
often has a sad heart.

The count has promised so much and made such gifts to the fair one,
that he has taken from her the sweet name of maiden:
he does all that he wishes with the young girl.
Argentine learns of it. She calls her lord to account.
Her heart in her breast almost bursts.
Whoever is wed to a bad husband
often has a sad heart.

The lady, sighing, shows what is in her heart:
‘Sire, for the love of God, have mercy! You have too much contempt
for me that you keep a concubine in front of my very eyes.
I marvel why you do me this shame,
for there has never been wantonness or excess in me.’
Whoever is wed to a bad husband
often has a sad heart.

‘Argentine, you have made yourself very clear.
I command you, by your eyes, to leave my land.
Be sure that you are never known to return!
For if you are seen or encountered here,
your life will be over forthwith.’
Whoever is wed to a bad husband
often has a sad heart.

For the sadness that she feels the lady has fallen to the floor.
When she is able to arise she sadly goes her way,
sighing in her heart, and does not cease to weep.
The tears of her heart flow in such a flood
that they soak her clothes and her ermine tunic.
Whoever is wed to a bad husband
often has a sad heart.