Inflict a thousand cruelties on me, but why bring up someone else, O beloved? Listen to the complaints about yourself from this half-dead lover of yours.

The lover tells his beloved that he can bear endless cruelty, but what truly wounds him is the mention of someone else. For him, the pain inflicted by the beloved is an exclusive and intimate bond that no rival should ever enter. In calling himself 'half-dead', he tenderly asks her to hear complaints directly from a soul whose dying breaths still belong entirely to her.