Shakespeare's Sonnets

Sonnet 6 (Cont. from 5)

Original:

Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,

In thee thy summer ere thou be distilled:

Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place,

With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed:

That use is not forbidden usury,

Which happies those that pay the willing loan;

That's for thy self to breed another thee,

Or ten times happier be it ten for one,

Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,

If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:

Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,

Leaving thee living in posterity?

Be not self-willed for thou art much too fair,

To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.

Translation:

 So don’t let wintry old age destroy your summer beauty before your essence has been preserved. Make some woman pregnant and pass on your beauty before it dies with you. It’s unfair to charge exorbitant interest on a loan. But if you lend a woman your body, she’ll be only too happy to pay you back with a child. Having a child—making another version of yourself—will make you happy. Having ten children will make you ten times as happy. What power would death have over you if you left children behind to keep your legacy alive? Don’t be willful and selfish—you’re much too beautiful to be conquered by death, with nothing left of you but a corpse devoured by worms.