Для Времени - кровавого тирана
зачем не выбрал ты мощнее средств
бороться с ним и с собственным Распадом,
чем просто рифмы, что плетёт поэт.
Сейчас ты наверху в блаженном часе,
когда в саду все девы для тебя
готовы понести цветы гораздо
живей, чем твой портретный контрафакт.
Так строки Жизни, что жизнь продлевают -
Сильней, чем перо Времени моё -
и внутренность и внешность наполняют
в глазах людей потомства твоего.
Отдать себя - и значит сохранить.
Своим искусством жизнь сумей продлить.
SONNET 16
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?
And fortify yourself in your decay
With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours;
And many maiden gardens, yet unset
With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit:
So should the lines of life that life repair,
Which this (Time's pencil, or my pupil pen),
Neither in inward worth nor outward fair,
Can make you live yourself in eyes of men.
To give away yourself keeps yourself still,
And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.
NOTES
XVI. But Mr. W. H., in his children, can give a far more perfect record of his excellences than the poet can possibly make in his Sonnets. The living portrayal which may thus be drawn surpasses every written record, and the "counterfeit painted by the hand of the artist."
2. This bloody tyrant, Time. Similarly in V. 3 the Hours are spoken of as "playing the tyrants."
5. On the top of happy hours. In the perfection of joyous youth, which can last but a brief space.
6. Maiden gardens. A slight variation from the agricultural imagery of III. 6.