¹If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;

¹Hata kama nikinena lugha za watu na hata za malaika, lakini kama sina upendo mimi nimekuwa tu kama sauti ya debe tupu au kengele.

²and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing;

²Tena, naweza kuwa na kipaji cha kutangaza ujumbe wa Mungu, nikafahamu siri zote na kujua kila kitu; naweza kuwa na imani yote hata nikaweza kuihamisha milima, lakini kama sina upendo mimi si kitu.

³and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.

³Nikitoa mali yangu yote na kuwapa maskini, na tena nikiutoa mwili wangu uchomwe, kama sina upendo hiyo hainifai chochote.

⁴The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,

⁴Mwenye upendo huvumilia, hufadhili; mwenye upendo hana wivu, hajidai, wala hajivuni.

⁵doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil,

⁵Mwenye upendo hakosi adabu, hatafuti faida yake binafsi, wala hana wepesi wa hasira; haweki kumbukumbu ya mabaya,

⁶rejoiceth not over the unrighteousness, and rejoiceth with the truth;

⁶hafurahii uovu, bali hufurahia ukweli.

⁷all things it beareth, all it believeth, all it hopeth, all it endureth.

⁷Mwenye upendo huvumilia yote, huamini yote, na hustahimili yote.

⁸The love doth never fail; and whether [there be] prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless;

⁸Upendo hauna kikomo kamwe. Kama kuna vipaji vya kutangaza ujumbe wa Mungu, hivyo vitatoweka siku moja; kama ni vipaji vya kusema lugha ngeni, vitakoma; kama kuna elimu, nayo itapita.

⁹for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;

⁹Maana ujuzi wetu si kamili, na kipaji chetu cha kutangaza neno la Mungu si kamili.

¹⁰and when that which is perfect may come, then that which [is] in part shall become useless.

¹⁰Lakini kile kilicho kikamilifu kitakapofika, vyote visivyo vikamilifu vitatoweka.

¹¹When I was a babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe;

¹¹Nilipokuwa mtoto mchanga nilisema kitoto, nilifahamu kitoto, nilifikiri kitoto. Lakini sasa, maadam mimi ni mtu mzima, mambo ya kitoto nimeyaacha.

¹²for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;

¹²Tunachoona sasa ni kama tu sura hafifu katika kioo, lakini hapo baadaye tutaona uso kwa uso. Sasa ninajua kiasi fulani tu, lakini hapo baadaye nitajua yote kikamilifu, kama vile Mungu anavyonijua mimi.

¹³and now there doth remain faith, hope, love — these three; and the greatest of these [is] love.

¹³Sasa yanadumu haya matatu: imani, tumaini na upendo; lakini lililo kuu kupita yote ni upendo.