The Perilous Fountain with the Charter of Love

But to begin such a work,
Each must understand their own case well.
¶ In such a place, reason fails
For the wisest who ever were.
When their own eye assailed them,
They never knew how to defend themselves.
For when they should have taken counsel,
Desire original: "Desir." Here personified as an external force that overpowers the mind's rational faculties. so hindered their senses,
And when they harbored it within themselves,
Each said to it: "I do not consent."

¶ To name them would be folly;
Many have spoken of them enough.
Melancholy original: "merancolie." In medieval medicine, this was one of the four humors; an excess of "black bile" was thought to cause profound sadness or even madness. would grow too much there.
Let us leave them; they have passed away.
Their books, so well measured, original: "compaſſez." Meaning both poetically rhythmic and logically structured.
Strongly repress such vanity.
But all—young, old, and broken—
Are subject to humanity. original: "humanite." Referring to the inescapable frailty and emotional nature of the human condition.

¶ My eye, you have wounded my heart original: "nauvre." An archaic term meaning to pierce or mortally injure, often used in courtly poetry for the "wound" of love.
With a wound that fears being touched,
Whereby I shall never have health,
But instead will die dry as a stump. original: "souche." A metaphor for a life drained of vitality and spirit, left withered and brittle.
For shame has stopped my mouth,
Which should have declared the root
Of the heavy grief that lies in my heart,
In order to apply a remedy to it.