1. ۱FROM off a hill whose concave womb rewordedاز فرازِ تپه‌ای که شکمِ گودش بازمی‌گفت
2. ۲A plaintful story from a sistering vale,داستانی پر اندوه از دره‌ای خواهرگون،
3. ۳My spirits to attend this double voice accorded,جانم با این صدای دوگانه هم‌نوا شد،
4. ۴And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale;و فرود آمدم تا به آن قصه‌ی غم‌بار گوش بسپارم؛
5. ۵Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,دیری نگذشت که دوشیزه‌ای دل‌نازک و رنگ‌پریده دیدم،
6. ۶Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,که کاغذها را پاره می‌کرد، انگشتری‌ها را دو نیم می‌کرد،
7. ۷Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.و دنیای خود را با باد و بارانِ غم می‌آشفت.
8. ۸
9. ۹Upon her head a platted hive of straw,بر سرش کلاهی بافته از کاه،
10. ۱۰Which fortified her visage from the sun,که چهره‌اش را از آفتاب پناه می‌داد،
11. ۱۱Whereon the thought might think sometime it sawو آدمی گاه به نگاهش گمان می‌برد
12. ۱۲The carcass of beauty spent and done:پیکرِ زیبایی‌ای فرسوده و رفته را می‌بیند:
13. ۱۳Time had not scythed all that youth begun,زمان هنوز همه‌ی جوانی را درو نکرده بود،
14. ۱۴Nor youth all quit; but, spite of heaven's fell rage,و جوانی نیز یک‌سر نرفته بود؛ بلکه با وجودِ خشمِ تلخِ آسمان،
15. ۱۵Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.هنوز کمی زیبایی از پنجره‌ی سال‌خوردگیِ پژمرده می‌درخشید.
16. ۱۶
17. ۱۷Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,بارها دستمالش را به چشمانش می‌برد،
18. ۱۸Which on it had conceited characters,دستمالی که بر آن حروفی هنرمندانه نقش بسته بود،
19. ۱۹Laundering the silken figures in the brineو نقش‌های ابریشمین را در شوره‌ی اشک می‌شست،
20. ۲۰That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,اشکی که اندوهِ کهنه به‌شکلِ گلوله‌هایش درآورده بود،
21. ۲۱And often reading what contents it bears;و بارها می‌خواند آنچه را بر دستمال بود؛
22. ۲۲As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,و هر بار جیغی از غمی نامفهوم می‌کشید،
23. ۲۳In clamours of all size, both high and low.با هیاهویی از هر اندازه، چه بلند چه آرام.
24. ۲۴
25. ۲۵Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride,گاه چشمانِ هم‌ترازش چنان به پرواز درمی‌آمدند،
26. ۲۶As they did battery to the spheres intend;گویی به سپهرها هجوم می‌برند؛
27. ۲۷Sometime diverted their poor balls are tiedگاه دیدگانِ بیچاره‌اش بسته می‌شد
28. ۲۸To the orbed earth; sometimes they do extendبه زمینِ گرد؛ گاه نگاهش را مستقیم می‌دوخت پیشِ رو؛
29. ۲۹Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
30. ۳۰To every place at once, and, nowhere fix'd,
31. ۳۱The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.
32. ۳۲
33. ۳۳Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat,
34. ۳۴Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride
35. ۳۵For some, untuck'd, descended her sheaved hat,
36. ۳۶Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside;
37. ۳۷Some in her threaden fillet still did bide,
38. ۳۸And true to bondage would not break from thence,
39. ۳۹Though slackly braided in loose negligence.
40. ۴۰
41. ۴۱A thousand favours from a maund she drew
42. ۴۲Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet,
43. ۴۳Which one by one she in a river threw,
44. ۴۴Upon whose weeping margent she was set;
45. ۴۵Like usury, applying wet to wet,
46. ۴۶Or monarch's hands that let not bounty fall
47. ۴۷Where want cries some, but where excess begs all.
48. ۴۸
49. ۴۹Of folded schedules had she many a one,
50. ۵۰Which she perused, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood;
51. ۵۱Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone
52. ۵۲Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;
53. ۵۳Found yet moe letters sadly penn'd in blood,
54. ۵۴With sleided silk feat and affectedly
55. ۵۵Enswathed, and seal'd to curious secrecy.
56. ۵۶
57. ۵۷These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes,
58. ۵۸And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear:
59. ۵۹Cried 'O false blood, thou register of lies,
60. ۶۰What unapproved witness dost thou bear!
61. ۶۱Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!'
62. ۶۲This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
63. ۶۳Big discontent so breaking their contents.
64. ۶۴
65. ۶۵A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh--
66. ۶۶Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew
67. ۶۷Of court, of city, and had let go by
68. ۶۸The swiftest hours, observed as they flew--
69. ۶۹Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew,
70. ۷۰And, privileged by age, desires to know
71. ۷۱In brief the grounds and motives of her woe.
72. ۷۲
73. ۷۳So slides he down upon his grained bat,
74. ۷۴And comely-distant sits he by her side;
75. ۷۵When he again desires her, being sat,
76. ۷۶Her grievance with his hearing to divide:
77. ۷۷If that from him there may be aught applied
78. ۷۸Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage,
79. ۷۹'Tis promised in the charity of age.
80. ۸۰
81. ۸۱'Father,' she says, 'though in me you behold
82. ۸۲The injury of many a blasting hour,
83. ۸۳Let it not tell your judgment I am old;
84. ۸۴Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power:
85. ۸۵I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
86. ۸۶Fresh to myself, If I had self-applied
87. ۸۷Love to myself and to no love beside.
88. ۸۸
89. ۸۹'But, woe is me! too early I attended
90. ۹۰A youthful suit--it was to gain my grace--
91. ۹۱Of one by nature's outwards so commended,
92. ۹۲That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face:
93. ۹۳Love lack'd a dwelling, and made him her place;
94. ۹۴And when in his fair parts she did abide,
95. ۹۵She was new lodged and newly deified.
96. ۹۶
97. ۹۷'His browny locks did hang in crooked curls;
98. ۹۸And every light occasion of the wind
99. ۹۹Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.
100. ۱۰۰What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find:
101. ۱۰۱Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind,
102. ۱۰۲For on his visage was in little drawn
103. ۱۰۳What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.
104. ۱۰۴
105. ۱۰۵'Small show of man was yet upon his chin;
106. ۱۰۶His phoenix down began but to appear
107. ۱۰۷Like unshorn velvet on that termless skin
108. ۱۰۸Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to wear:
109. ۱۰۹Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear;
110. ۱۱۰And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
111. ۱۱۱If best were as it was, or best without.
112. ۱۱۲
113. ۱۱۳'His qualities were beauteous as his form,
114. ۱۱۴For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;
115. ۱۱۵Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm
116. ۱۱۶As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
117. ۱۱۷When winds breathe sweet, untidy though they be.
118. ۱۱۸His rudeness so with his authorized youth
119. ۱۱۹Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.
120. ۱۲۰
121. ۱۲۱'Well could he ride, and often men would say
122. ۱۲۲'That horse his mettle from his rider takes:
123. ۱۲۳Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
124. ۱۲۴What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop
125. ۱۲۵he makes!'
126. ۱۲۶And controversy hence a question takes,
127. ۱۲۷Whether the horse by him became his deed,
128. ۱۲۸Or he his manage by the well-doing steed.
129. ۱۲۹
130. ۱۳۰'But quickly on this side the verdict went:
131. ۱۳۱His real habitude gave life and grace
132. ۱۳۲To appertainings and to ornament,
133. ۱۳۳Accomplish'd in himself, not in his case:
134. ۱۳۴All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
135. ۱۳۵Came for additions; yet their purposed trim
136. ۱۳۶Pieced not his grace, but were all graced by him.
137. ۱۳۷
138. ۱۳۸'So on the tip of his subduing tongue
139. ۱۳۹All kinds of arguments and question deep,
140. ۱۴۰All replication prompt, and reason strong,
141. ۱۴۱For his advantage still did wake and sleep:
142. ۱۴۲To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
143. ۱۴۳He had the dialect and different skill,
144. ۱۴۴Catching all passions in his craft of will:
145. ۱۴۵
146. ۱۴۶'That he did in the general bosom reign
147. ۱۴۷Of young, of old; and sexes both enchanted,
148. ۱۴۸To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
149. ۱۴۹In personal duty, following where he haunted:
150. ۱۵۰Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted;
151. ۱۵۱And dialogued for him what he would say,
152. ۱۵۲Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.
153. ۱۵۳
154. ۱۵۴'Many there were that did his picture get,
155. ۱۵۵To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;
156. ۱۵۶Like fools that in th' imagination set
157. ۱۵۷The goodly objects which abroad they find
158. ۱۵۸Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assign'd;
159. ۱۵۹And labouring in moe pleasures to bestow them
160. ۱۶۰Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them:
161. ۱۶۱
162. ۱۶۲'So many have, that never touch'd his hand,
163. ۱۶۳Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart.
164. ۱۶۴My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
165. ۱۶۵And was my own fee-simple, not in part,
166. ۱۶۶What with his art in youth, and youth in art,
167. ۱۶۷Threw my affections in his charmed power,
168. ۱۶۸Reserved the stalk and gave him all my flower.
169. ۱۶۹
170. ۱۷۰'Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
171. ۱۷۱Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;
172. ۱۷۲Finding myself in honour so forbid,
173. ۱۷۳With safest distance I mine honour shielded:
174. ۱۷۴Experience for me many bulwarks builded
175. ۱۷۵Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain'd the foil
176. ۱۷۶Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.
177. ۱۷۷
178. ۱۷۸'But, ah, who ever shunn'd by precedent
179. ۱۷۹The destined ill she must herself assay?
180. ۱۸۰Or forced examples, 'gainst her own content,
181. ۱۸۱To put the by-past perils in her way?
182. ۱۸۲Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay;
183. ۱۸۳For when we rage, advice is often seen
184. ۱۸۴By blunting us to make our wits more keen.
185. ۱۸۵
186. ۱۸۶'Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
187. ۱۸۷That we must curb it upon others' proof;
188. ۱۸۸To be forbod the sweets that seem so good,
189. ۱۸۹For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
190. ۱۹۰O appetite, from judgment stand aloof!
191. ۱۹۱The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
192. ۱۹۲Though Reason weep, and cry, 'It is thy last.'
193. ۱۹۳
194. ۱۹۴'For further I could say 'This man's untrue,'
195. ۱۹۵And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling;
196. ۱۹۶Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew,
197. ۱۹۷Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling;
198. ۱۹۸Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling;
199. ۱۹۹Thought characters and words merely but art,
200. ۲۰۰And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.
201. ۲۰۱
202. ۲۰۲'And long upon these terms I held my city,
203. ۲۰۳Till thus he gan besiege me: 'Gentle maid,
204. ۲۰۴Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity,
205. ۲۰۵And be not of my holy vows afraid:
206. ۲۰۶That's to ye sworn to none was ever said;
207. ۲۰۷For feasts of love I have been call'd unto,
208. ۲۰۸Till now did ne'er invite, nor never woo.
209. ۲۰۹
210. ۲۱۰''All my offences that abroad you see
211. ۲۱۱Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;
212. ۲۱۲Love made them not: with acture they may be,
213. ۲۱۳Where neither party is nor true nor kind:
214. ۲۱۴They sought their shame that so their shame did find;
215. ۲۱۵And so much less of shame in me remains,
216. ۲۱۶By how much of me their reproach contains.
217. ۲۱۷
218. ۲۱۸''Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
219. ۲۱۹Not one whose flame my heart so much as warm'd,
220. ۲۲۰Or my affection put to the smallest teen,
221. ۲۲۱Or any of my leisures ever charm'd:
222. ۲۲۲Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harm'd;
223. ۲۲۳Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free,
224. ۲۲۴And reign'd, commanding in his monarchy.
225. ۲۲۵
226. ۲۲۶''Look here, what tributes wounded fancies sent me,
227. ۲۲۷Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood;
228. ۲۲۸Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me
229. ۲۲۹Of grief and blushes, aptly understood
230. ۲۳۰In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood;
231. ۲۳۱Effects of terror and dear modesty,
232. ۲۳۲Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.
233. ۲۳۳
234. ۲۳۴''And, lo, behold these talents of their hair,
235. ۲۳۵With twisted metal amorously impleach'd,
236. ۲۳۶I have received from many a several fair,
237. ۲۳۷Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd,
238. ۲۳۸With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd,
239. ۲۳۹And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify
240. ۲۴۰Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.
241. ۲۴۱
242. ۲۴۲''The diamond,--why, 'twas beautiful and hard,
243. ۲۴۳Whereto his invised properties did tend;
244. ۲۴۴The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard
245. ۲۴۵Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;
246. ۲۴۶The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend
247. ۲۴۷With objects manifold: each several stone,
248. ۲۴۸With wit well blazon'd, smiled or made some moan.
249. ۲۴۹
250. ۲۵۰''Lo, all these trophies of affections hot,
251. ۲۵۱Of pensived and subdued desires the tender,
252. ۲۵۲Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not,
253. ۲۵۳But yield them up where I myself must render,
254. ۲۵۴That is, to you, my origin and ender;
255. ۲۵۵For these, of force, must your oblations be,
256. ۲۵۶Since I their altar, you enpatron me.
257. ۲۵۷
258. ۲۵۸''O, then, advance of yours that phraseless hand,
259. ۲۵۹Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise;
260. ۲۶۰Take all these similes to your own command,
261. ۲۶۱Hallow'd with sighs that burning lungs did raise;
262. ۲۶۲What me your minister, for you obeys,
263. ۲۶۳Works under you; and to your audit comes
264. ۲۶۴Their distract parcels in combined sums.
265. ۲۶۵
266. ۲۶۶''Lo, this device was sent me from a nun,
267. ۲۶۷Or sister sanctified, of holiest note;
268. ۲۶۸Which late her noble suit in court did shun,
269. ۲۶۹Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote;
270. ۲۷۰For she was sought by spirits of richest coat,
271. ۲۷۱But kept cold distance, and did thence remove,
272. ۲۷۲To spend her living in eternal love.
273. ۲۷۳
274. ۲۷۴''But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave
275. ۲۷۵The thing we have not, mastering what not strives,
276. ۲۷۶Playing the place which did no form receive,
277. ۲۷۷Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves?
278. ۲۷۸She that her fame so to herself contrives,
279. ۲۷۹The scars of battle 'scapeth by the flight,
280. ۲۸۰And makes her absence valiant, not her might.
281. ۲۸۱
282. ۲۸۲''O, pardon me, in that my boast is true:
283. ۲۸۳The accident which brought me to her eye
284. ۲۸۴Upon the moment did her force subdue,
285. ۲۸۵And now she would the caged cloister fly:
286. ۲۸۶Religious love put out Religion's eye:
287. ۲۸۷Not to be tempted, would she be immured,
288. ۲۸۸And now, to tempt, all liberty procured.
289. ۲۸۹
290. ۲۹۰''How mighty then you are, O, hear me tell!
291. ۲۹۱The broken bosoms that to me belong
292. ۲۹۲Have emptied all their fountains in my well,
293. ۲۹۳And mine I pour your ocean all among:
294. ۲۹۴I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong,
295. ۲۹۵Must for your victory us all congest,
296. ۲۹۶As compound love to physic your cold ....
297. ۲۹۷
298. ۲۹۸''My parts had power to charm a sacred nun,
299. ۲۹۹Who, disciplined, ay, dieted in grace,
300. ۳۰۰Believed her eyes when they to assail begun,
301. ۳۰۱All vows and consecrations giving place:
302. ۳۰۲O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space,
303. ۳۰۳In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine,
304. ۳۰۴For thou art all, and all things else are thine.
305. ۳۰۵
306. ۳۰۶''When thou impressest, what are precepts worth
307. ۳۰۷Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame,
308. ۳۰۸How coldly those impediments stand forth
309. ۳۰۹Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!
310. ۳۱۰Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense,
311. ۳۱۱'gainst shame,
312. ۳۱۲And sweetens, in the suffering pangs it bears,
313. ۳۱۳The aloes of all forces, shocks, and fears.
314. ۳۱۴
315. ۳۱۵''Now all these hearts that do on mine depend,
316. ۳۱۶Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine;
317. ۳۱۷And supplicant their sighs to you extend,
318. ۳۱۸To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,
319. ۳۱۹Lending soft audience to my sweet design,
320. ۳۲۰And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath
321. ۳۲۱That shall prefer and undertake my troth.'
322. ۳۲۲
323. ۳۲۳'This said, his watery eyes he did dismount,
324. ۳۲۴Whose sights till then were levell'd on my face;
325. ۳۲۵Each cheek a river running from a fount
326. ۳۲۶With brinish current downward flow'd apace:
327. ۳۲۷O, how the channel to the stream gave grace!
328. ۳۲۸Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses
329. ۳۲۹That flame through water which their hue encloses.
330. ۳۳۰
331. ۳۳۱'O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies
332. ۳۳۲In the small orb of one particular tear!
333. ۳۳۳But with the inundation of the eyes
334. ۳۳۴What rocky heart to water will not wear?
335. ۳۳۵What ... so cold that is not warmed here?
336. ۳۳۶O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath,
337. ۳۳۷Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath.
338. ۳۳۸
339. ۳۳۹'For, lo, his passion, but an art of craft,
340. ۳۴۰Even there resolved my reason into tears;
341. ۳۴۱There my white stole of chastity I daff'd,
342. ۳۴۲Shook off my sober guards and civil fears;
343. ۳۴۳Appear to him, as he to me appears,
344. ۳۴۴All melting; though our drops this difference bore,
345. ۳۴۵His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.
346. ۳۴۶
347. ۳۴۷'In him a plenitude of subtle matter,
348. ۳۴۸Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives,
349. ۳۴۹Of burning blushes, or of weeping water,
350. ۳۵۰Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,
351. ۳۵۱In either's aptness, as it best deceives,
352. ۳۵۲To blush at speeches rank to weep at woes,
353. ۳۵۳Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows.
354. ۳۵۴
355. ۳۵۵'That not a heart which in his level came
356. ۳۵۶Could 'scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,
357. ۳۵۷Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;
358. ۳۵۸And, veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim:
359. ۳۵۹Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;
360. ۳۶۰When he most burn'd in heart-wish'd luxury,
361. ۳۶۱He preach'd pure maid, and praised cold chastity.
362. ۳۶۲
363. ۳۶۳'Thus merely with the garment of a Grace
364. ۳۶۴The ... and concealed fiend he cover'd;
365. ۳۶۵That th' unexperient gave the tempter place,
366. ۳۶۶Which like a cherubin above them hover'd.
367. ۳۶۷Who, young and simple, would not be so lover'd?
368. ۳۶۸Ay me! I fell; and yet do question make
369. ۳۶۹What I should do again for such a sake.
370. ۳۷۰
371. ۳۷۱'O, that infected moisture of his eye,
372. ۳۷۲O, that false fire which in his cheek so glow'd,
373. ۳۷۳O, that forced thunder from his heart did fly,
374. ۳۷۴O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd,
375. ۳۷۵O, all that borrow'd motion seeming owed,
376. ۳۷۶Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd,
377. ۳۷۷And new pervert a reconciled maid!'