Like as, to make our appetites more keen,

With eager compounds we our palate urge,

As, to prevent our maladies unseen,

We sicken to shun sickness when we purge,

Even so, being tuff of your ne'er-cloying sweetness,

To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding

And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness

To be diseased ere that there was true needing.

Thus policy in love, to anticipate

The ills that were not, grew to faults assured

And brought to medicine a healthful state

Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured:

But thence I learn, and find the lesson true,

Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.

好比我們為了促使食欲增進，

用種種辛辣調味品刺激胃口；

又好比服清瀉劑以預防大病，

用較輕的病截斷重癥的根由；

同樣，飽嘗了你的不膩人的甜蜜，

我選上苦醬來當作我的食料；

厭倦了健康，覺得病也有意思，

盡管我還沒有到生病的必要。

這樣，為采用先發制病的手段，

愛的策略變成了真實的過失：

我對健康的身體亂投下藥丹，

用痛苦來把過度的幸福療治。

　　但我由此取得這真正的教訓：

　　藥也會變毒，誰若因愛你而生病。