Chapter XII

I ask that God in justice punish me With death, if my love waver or grow less; Faithful am I indeed-- How can you comprehend such faithfulness?

To you alone I offer up my heart, To any other what have I to give? No light demand I make, What answer will you grant that I may live?

If on the last dread Day of Reckoning I think of you, and in my heart there shine The beauty of your face, God's Beatific Vision shall be mine.

Once I had friends, now none are left to me; I see none else but you, because my heart Has wholly fled to you, And thus I walk the ways of Earth apart.

I, Asif, am the chief of sinners held, This dark dishonour will I not deny, But glory in my shame; Where is another sinner such as I?

ASIF.