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 I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

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 [the gift of] prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but 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 bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

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

⁴Love suffereth long, [and] is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

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

⁵doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;

⁶hafurahii uovu, bali hufurahia ukweli.

⁶rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;

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

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

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.

⁸Love never faileth: but whether [there be] prophecies, they shall be done away; whether [there be] tongues, they shall cease; whether [there be] knowledge, it shall be done away.

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

⁹For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;

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

¹⁰but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

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

¹¹When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.

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 now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.

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

¹³But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.