If my dear love were but the child of state,

It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd'

As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,

Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.

No, it was builded far from accident;

It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls

Under the blow of thralled discontent,

Whereto the inviting time our fashion calls:

It fears not policy, that heretic,

Which works on leases of short-number'd hours,

But all alone stands hugely politic,

That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers.

To this I witness call the fools of time,

Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.

假如我的愛只是權勢的嫡種，

它就會是命運的無父的私生子，

受時光的寵辱所磨折和播弄，

同野草閑花一起任人們采刈。

不呀，它并不是建立在偶然上；

它既不為榮華的笑顏所轉移，

也經受得起我們這時代風尚

司空見慣的抑郁、憤懣的打擊：

它不害怕那只在短期間有效、

到處散播異端和邪說的權謀，

不因驕陽而生長，雨也沖不掉，

它巍然獨立在那里，深思熟籌。

　　被時光愚弄的人們，起來作證！

　　你們畢生作惡，卻一死得干凈。