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 languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have 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.

²If 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 don’t have love, I am nothing.

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

³If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.

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

⁴Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,

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

⁵doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;

⁶hafurahii uovu, bali hufurahia ukweli.

⁶doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

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

⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures 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 fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

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 complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.

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 spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have 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, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

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

¹³But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.