Like as, to make our appetites more keen,
With eager compounds we our palate urge,
As, to prevent our maladies unseen,
We sicken to shun¹ 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.

好比我们为了促使食欲增进，
用种种辛辣调味品刺激胃口；
又好比服清泻剂以预防大病，
用较轻的病截断重症的根由；
同样，饱尝了你的不腻人的甜蜜，
我选上苦酱来当作我的食料；
厌倦了健康，觉得病也有意思，
尽管我还没有到生病的必要。
这样，为采用先发制病的手段，
爱的策略变成了真实的过失：
我对健康的身体乱投下药丹，
用痛苦来把过度的幸福疗治。
　　但我由此取得这真正的教训：
　　药也会变毒，谁若因爱你而生病。