If my dear love were but the child of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard¹ 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 inviting² 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.

假如我的爱只是权势的嫡种，
它就会是命运的无父的私生子，
受时光的宠辱所磨折和播弄，
同野草闲花一起任人们采刈。
不呀，它并不是建立在偶然上；
它既不为荣华的笑颜所转移，
也经受得起我们这时代风尚
司空见惯的抑郁、愤懑的打击：
它不害怕那只在短期间有效、
到处散播异端和邪说的权谋，
不因骄阳而生长，雨也冲不掉，
它巍然独立在那里，深思熟筹。
　　被时光愚弄的人们，起来作证！
　　你们毕生作恶，却一死得干净。