Священные сонеты

Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one:
Inconstancy unnaturally hath begot
A constant habit; that when I would not
I change in vows, and in devotion.
As humorous is my contrition
As my profane love, and as soon forgot:
As riddlingly distempered, cold and hot,
As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none.
I durst not view heaven yesterday; and today
In prayers and flattering speeches I court God:
Tomorrow I quake with true fear of his rod.
So my devout fits come and go away
Like a fantastic ague; save that here
Those are my best days, when I shake with fear.

19. Покаяние

Противоречия взялись меня терзать,
Во мне, рождая подлость и коварство.
Я, от природы, чтивший постоянство,
Стал благостным обетам изменять.
Раскаянье, как и любовь моя,
Приносят мне не радость, а мытарства.
В них холод, жар, страдая, как от пьянства,
Мольбы и клятвы забываю я.
Вчера не льстил я небесам мольбой,
Сегодня умоляю о вниманье,
А завтра жду от Бога наказанье,
Приливы веры, как прибой – отбой
Горячки вздорной; но одно я знаю,
Страх тем слабей, чем больше я страдаю.

Избранное. Love’s Alchemy

Some that have deeper digged love’s mine than I,
Say, where his centric happiness doth lie;
I have loved, and got and told,
But should I love, get, tell, till I were old,
I should not find that hidden mystery;
Oh, ‘tis imposture all:
And as no chemic yet the elixir got,
But glorifies his pregnant pot,
If by the way to him befall
Some odoriferous thing, or medicinal,
So lovers dream a rich and long delight,
But get a winter-seeming summer’s night.
Our ease, our thrift, our honour and our day,
Shall we, for this ain bubble’ shadow pay?
Ends love on this, that my man,
Can be as happy as I can
Endure the sort scorn of a bridegroom’s play?
That loving wretch that swears,
Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds,
Which he in her angelic finds,
Wouldswear as justly, that he hears,
In that day’s rude hoarse minstrelsy, the spheres.
Hope not for mind in women; at their best
Sweetness and wit, they are but mummy, possessed.

Алхимия любви