Lyrics:

Now O Now I Needs Must Part
John Dowland, First Booke of Songes or Ayres, 1579

Now O now I needs must part,
Parting though I absent mourn.
Absence can no joy impart,
Joy once fled cannot return.

While I live I needs must love,
Love lives not when hope is gone.
Now at last despair doth prove,
Love divided loveth not.

Sad despair doth drive me hence,
This despair unkindness sends,
If that parting be offence,
It is she which then offends.

Dear when I am from thee gone,
Gone are all my joys at once,
I love thee and thee alone,
In whose love I joyed once.

And although your sight I leave,
Sight wherein my joys do lie,
Till that death do sense bereave,
Never shall affection die.

Sad despair ...

Dear, if I do not return,
Love and I shall die together,
For my absence never move
Whom you might have joyed ever.

Part we must, though now I die,
Die I do to part with you,
If despair doth call to mind
Who both lived and died true.

Sad despair ...