Grief, toil, affliction, sorrow, despair, pain, wounds, sighs, and laments—these are the heart's only companions.

The poet lists a relentless cascade of afflictions—grief, exhaustion, sorrow, scars, and sighs—and wryly sums them up as just the heart's 'four or five companions.' There is a touching irony here: in utter loneliness, where no human friend remains, pain itself becomes an inseparable confidant. It captures the bittersweet reality of a broken heart that has made peace with its suffering.