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Sonnet 63
Shakespeare's Sonnets Translation Sonnet 64
When I have seen by time’s fell hand defaced The rich proud cost of outworn buried age; When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed, And brass eternal slave to mortal rage; When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, And the firm soil win of the watery main, Increasing store with loss, and loss with store; When I have seen such interchange of state, Or state itself confounded to decay, Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate, That time will come and take my love away. This thought is as a death, which cannot choose But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
When I have seen defaced by time's savage hand
The rich monuments of worn out and buried past ages;
When I see towers that were once lofty razed to the ground,
And even brass become subject to human destruction.
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil conquer territory from the ocean,
Increasing its store with the other's loss, and vice versa.
When I have seen that interchange of states,
And the state itself demolished into nothing,
Ruin has taught me in this way to think
That time will come and take my love away.
This thought is like death, and I can't help
But weep to have something that I fear to lose.
