Sonnet CXXVIII (128)

How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st,
Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds

With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway'st

The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,

Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap

To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,

Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,

At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand!

To be so tickled, they would change their state

And situation with those dancing chips,

O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,

Making dead wood more blest than living lips.

   Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,

   Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

Soneto de amor CXXVIII (128)

Cuando pulsas, mi música, el teclado 

Con la danza aleteante de tus dedos 

Y le arrancas con grácil movimiento 

Acordes que seducen mis oídos, 

Envidio a los listones que dan brincos 

Por besarte la palma de la mano, 

Y la audacia de la madera inerte 

A mis tímidos labios ruboriza. 

Por esa sensación se trocarían 

En las teclas que rozas con dulzura, 

Dando airosamente al leño muerto 

Lo que a labios vivientes has negado. 

Si tus dedos los hacen tan dichosos, 

Dáselos, y a mí dame tus labios. 

Sonnet CXXVII (127)

In the old age black was not counted fair,

Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;

But now is black beauty's successive heir,

And beauty slander'd with a bastard shame:

For since each hand hath put on nature's power,

Fairing the foul with art's false borrow'd face,

Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,

But is profan'd, if not lives in disgrace.

Therefore my mistress' brows are raven black,

Her eyes so suited; and they mourners seem

At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,

Slandering creation with a false esteem:

   Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,

   That every tongue says, beauty should look so.

3. Beauty's successive heir. Has gained the esteem formerly devoted to beauty. The "successive heir" is the heir who succeeds, and obtains the inheritance. 

4. And beauty slander'd with a bastard shame. The "bastard shame" is the product of art. Beauty and Nature are slandered by the artificial asserting in effect that Art is better than Nature. 

5. Hath put on Nature's power. It being Nature's prerogative to give beauty. 

7. Natural beauty has no exclusive name, no sanctuary all her own. Q., "no holy boure." 

10. Suited. The sense of "clothed" which has been given to the word here is questionable. 

12. Slandering creation, &c. See on line 4. 

Soneto de amor CXXVII (127)

Antaño la negrura no era hermosa, 

O si lo era, no le decían bella, 

Más lo negro hoy sucede a la belleza, 

Con bastardas afrentas difamada. 

Pues como todos el poder se arrogan 

De velar la fealdad con artes falsas, 

La belleza perdió el sagrado nombre 

Y vive, profanada, en la ignominia. 

Negro es pues el cabello de mi amada, 

Y negros como cuervos son sus ojos, 

Enlutados porque esos artificios 

Con falsedad difaman lo creado. 

Y tanto los endiosa el negro luto 

Que hoy se dice que la belleza es negra.  

Sonnet CXXVI (126)

O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power

Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour;

Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st

Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st;

If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,

As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,

She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill

May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.

Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure;

She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure:

   Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be,

   And her quietus is to render thee. 

1. My lovely boy. It appears thus implied that Mr. W. H. is still a youth. 

2. Time's fickle glass. Time's ever-shifting and changing hour-glass. His sickle hour. His hour which, like a sickle, cuts off all things beautiful. There is, of course, an allusion to the scythe or sickle with which the figure of Time is represented as armed. 

3. Who hast by waning grown. Whose change with the advance of time has been a growth in beauty. 

4. Thy lovers withering. As men commonly decay with advancing age. 

5. Wrack. Decay. 

6. Pluck thee back. Pull and keep thee back, so as to be still in youthful beauty. 

8. May Time disgrace. His agency being thwarted, and his efforts rendered ineffectual.Wretched minutes kill. The "minutes" are killed or annihilated, as leaving behind them no trace of their existence. 

9. Yet fear her. Do not place assured confidence in her, that is, in Nature. 

10. Not still keep. Not keep continually. 

11. She must render her account at last. 

12. Quietus has been taken as a technical legal term, implying an acquittance or discharge of obligation. As this Sonnet has twelve lines only, the printer of the Quarto seems to have thought that two lines were lacking, and accordingly placed at the end marks of parenthesis thus:

Soneto de amor CXXVI (126)

Oh joven adorable, has detenido 

las horas el espejo, la hoz del Tiempo, 

Y creciendo embelleces, más lozano 

Cuanto más se marchitan tus amantes. 

Si Natura, señora de la ruina, 

Te retiene aunque sigas avanzando 

Una meta persigue: que tu ingenio 

Agravie al Tiempo, mate los minutos. 

Mas témele, aunque seas su dilecto, 

Pues no guardará siempre su tesoro. 

Aun morosa, tendrá que rendir cuentas 

Y solo tú podrás saldar la deuda. 

Sonnet CXXV (125)

Were't aught to me I bore the canopy,

With my extern the outward honouring,

Or laid great bases for eternity,

Which proves more short than waste or ruining;

Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour

Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent,

For compound sweet forgoing simple savour,

Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent?

No; -- let me be obsequious in thy heart,

And take thou my oblation, poor but free,

Which is not mix'd with seconds, knows no art,

But mutual render, only me for thee.

   Hence, thou suborn'd informer! a true soul,

   When most impeach'd, stands least in thy control. 

1. Were't aught to me. As if to say, "If it were necessary for me to defend my conduct." 

1-4. It is natural to regard as figurative the "bearing the canopy." Such must be the case with the "laying great bases for eternity;" and taking the last lines of the preceding Sonnet as referring to Essex and his companions, it is not unreasonable to suppose that there is here an allusion to Shakespeare's relations with Southampton. We may thus conclude that the poet asserts his relation to that nobleman to have been a "bearing the canopy," an "outward honouring," a "gazing" on his "extern," and that he had never been admitted to close and intimate friendship. The charge of fickleness and falsity of heart is thus answered. 

3. Or laid great bases, &c. There is probably still some thought of a pyramid in the poet's mind. The reference is probably to the Dedication to the Lucrece, "The love I dedicate to your Lordship is without end," &c. But there may be allusion also to the Venus and Adonis. 

4. Proves. So Q. Notice that it is the anticipated "eternity" which "proves more short" than ruin and destruction. 

5, 6. Persons admitted only to external relations, however sedulous in their attentions, may lose not only seeming affection, but incur still further mischiefs. 

7. The compound sweet alludes to external relations and formal etiquette; the "simple savour" to close intimacy and heartfelt love. 

8. Pitiful thrivers, even when successful. 

9. In thy heart. Not "to thy heart," which would have been more distant. Schmidt explains "obsequious" by zealous, officious, devoted. 

10. Take thou my oblation, as represented by these Sonnets. 

11. Which is not mix'd with seconds. Which is all as of the finest, best flour, in accordance perhaps with "oblation." 

12. But mutual render, only me for thee. Alluding probably to the fiction of an exchange of hearts (xxii., xxiv.); so that the manifestation of love which the friend might show came from the poet's heart in the friend's breast, and vice versa. 

13. Hence, thou suborn'd informer. With reference probably to the person or persons who had brought charges against the poet. 

14. Stands least in thy control. Such impeachment causing its love to be stronger, and its constancy more assured. 

Soneto de amor CXXV (125)

¿Por qué tu pabellón sustentaría, 

Lo exterior celebrando externamente, 

O echaría cimientos sempiternos 

Que serán pronto ruinas y despojos? 

¿No he visto a quienes aman la apariencia 

Perderlo todo y más despilfarrando 

Por gustar de sabores azarosos 

En ávidas miradas consumidos? 

Prefiero que en el pecho me recibas 

Y aceptes mi oblación, si humilde franca, 

Harina pura y sin más artificios 

Que un recíproco don, la entrega mutua. 

¡Fuera, intrigante! Cuanto más acuses 

A un alma leal, menos la dañas.  

Sonnet CXXIV (124)

If my dear love were but the child of state,

It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd

As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,

Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.

No; it was builded far from accident;

It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls

Under the blow of thralled discontent,

Whereto the inviting time our fashion calls:

It fears not policy, that heretick, 

Which works on leases of short-number'd hours,

But all alone stands hugely politick, 

That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers.

   To this I witness call the fools of time,

   Which die for goodness, who have liv'd for crime. 

1, 2. If my love were the child of state, it might have yielded up its position in relation to the state to whatever Fortune, in her endless changes, might produce. 

3. As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate. That is, as being the "fool of Time" (line 13). 

4. To be cut down by the scythe of Time at his pleasure, and accordingly, as hated or loved, to lie a weed among weeds, or a flower among flowers. 

5. No; it was builded, &c. Reverting probably to the pyramid spoken of in the last Sonnet. 

6. Smiling pomp. Notice that the idea of "state" is still kept in view. 

7. Under the blow of thralled discontent. Alluding pretty evidently to the discontent existing after the death of Essex. The discontent was "thralled," as being kept down and held in subjection. 

8. The custom and usage of our time invites to such discontent. 

9. That heretick. As seeking separately its own interests. 

11, 12. But all alone, &c. Here again we have the pyramid of the last Sonnet. Politick seems here equivalent to self-sufficing, desiring no increase or extension, and fearing no enemies, like a well-ordered city or state. Cf. Much Ado, Act v. sc. 2, lines 63, 64, "So politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them." 

13, 14. The fools of Time, &c. Those whom Time does what he likes with. They "die for goodness," alluding to the popular repute of Essex as the "good Earl," notwithstanding the "crimes" for which he and certain of his companions were executed. Cf. cxvi. 9. 

Soneto de amor CXXIV (124)

Si mi amor naciera de ambiciones 

Sería cual bastardo de fortuna, 

Al Tiempo y sus mudanzas sometido, 

Flor o vil maleza a conveniencia 

Mas no es fruto vano y azaroso 

Tentado por los fastos sonrientes, 

Ni es víctima del mudo descontento 

Al que invitan las modas pasajeras. 

No teme a la política, esa hereje, 

Que aprovecha afanosa horas contadas, 

Sirve en cambio a un íntegro gobierno 

Al que soles o lluvias no varían. 

Los bufones del Tiempo sean testigos, 

Que si mueren por bien, por mal vivieron. 

Sonnet CXXIII (123)

No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change:

Thy pyramids built up with newer might

To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;

They are but dressings of a former sight.

Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire

What thou dost foist upon us that is old;

And rather make them born to our desire, 

Than think that we before have heard them told.

Thy registers and thee I both defy,

Not wondering at the present nor the past,

For thy records and what we see doth lie,

Made more or less by thy continual haste.

   This I do vow and this shall ever be;
   I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee. 

2. Thy pyramids. To be understood of anything grand and stupendous. Newer might. Power lately exercised. 

5. Dates. Terms of existence. Admire. Wonder at. 

7. And rather make them born to our desire. And prefer to regard them as really new, just "born." Q. "borne." 

11. What we see do lie. By pretending to be new when not really so. 

12. Made more or less by thy continual haste. Thus preventing an accurate register from being kept. 

14. Scythe. Q. "syeth."

Soneto de amor CXXIII (123)

No podrás ufanarte de mis cambios 

Oh Tiempo, que pirámides eriges 

Que no son novedad y no me asombran, 

Pues sólo reedificas cosas vistas. 

Fugaz es nuestro paso, y admiramos 

Lo que es viejo creyéndolo reciente, 

Pensando que nació para nosotros 

Aun cuando de antiguo se lo nombra. 

A ti y tus testimonios desafío, 

Reniego del presente y del pasado, 

Pues tus crónicas y todo cuanto vemos 

Son engaños que urde tu premura. 
Prometo, y es promesa eterna, 
Ser leal a pesar de tu guadaña

Sonnet CXXII (122)

Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain

Full character'd with lasting memory,

Which shall above that idle rank remain

Beyond all date, even to etenity; 

Or at the least, so long as brain and heart 

Have faculty by nature to subsist;

Till each to razed oblivion yield his part

Of thee, thy record never can be miss'd. 

That poor retention could not so much hold, 

Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score; 

Therefore to give them from me was I bold, 

To trust those tables that receive thee more: 

   To keep an adjunct to remember thee 

   Were to import forgetfulness in me.

Soneto de amor CXXII (122)

Tu regalo, tu agenda, está grabada 

Con trazo indeleble en mi memoria, 

Que sobrevivirá a este bien caduco 

Largo Tiempo, quizás hasta lo eterno, 

O al menos mientras corazón y mente 

Subsistan por obra de Natura. 

Mientras ambos no sean despojados 

del recuerdo de ti, no ha de perderse. 

Ese pobre registro abarca poco 

Y yo puedo guardar tu amor sin tarjas; 

Tuve pues la audacia de obsequiarla 

Por fiarme de agenda más precisa: 

Usar objetos para recordarte 

Sería abrir las puertas al olvido.