Sonnet 9

Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye,
That thou consum’st thy self in single life?
Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife,

The world will be thy widow and still weep,
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep,
By children’s eyes, her husband’s shape in mind:

Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it:

    No love toward others in that bosom sits
    That on himself such murd’rous shame commits.

难道因为怕让某个寡妇流泪哀哭，
你就在独身之中让自己白白虚度？
唉，如果没有后代就不得不死去，
世界为你哭泣，就如丧偶的寡妇。

世界将是你的寡妇，她仍在哀哭，
哀哭未能在你死后留下你的身躯。
而别的寡妇每个都通过儿女的眼，
使她丈夫的肖像在她脑海中永驻。

看挥霍的人在世上所浪费的资财，
因世界仍享用它，只是财权更改；
但美的浪费致使美丽在世上终结，
且留着不用，就等同于将它毁坏：

在他内心的深处没有对别人的爱，
因他那么可耻，竟然将自己谋害。