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

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

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.

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;

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

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.

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

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

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

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

⁶hafurahii uovu, bali hufurahia ukweli.

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

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

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

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.

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;

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

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

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

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

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

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;

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.

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;

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

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