O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are
No longer yours than you yourself here live:
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination: then you were
Yourself again after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know
You had a father: let your son say so.

哦，但愿你是你自己，但愛呀，你
終非你有，當你不再活在世上：
對這將臨的日子你得要準備，
快交給別人你那俊秀的肖像。
這樣，你所租賃的朱顏就永遠
不會有滿期；于是你又將變成
你自己，當你已經離開了人間，
既然你兒子保留著你的倩影。
誰肯讓一座這樣的華廈傾頹，
如果小心地看守便可以維護
它的光彩，去抵抗隆冬的狂吹
和那冷酷的死神無情的暴怒？
哦，除非是浪子；我愛呀，你知道
你有父親；讓你兒子也可自豪。