Шекспир. Сонет 95. Тупится ножик

Как сладко, мило ты творишь позор,
который, будто червь внутри у розы,
пятнает красоту твоих имен,
в какую сладость грех ты внес занозой!
Кто написал б историю твою -
включил бы похотливый комментарий,
Но это вновь вменится в похвалу,
все именем твоим благословляя.
В какой же дом вошел этот порок!
Кого себе избрал для обитанья,
Вуалью красота пятно сотрет
и сделает благим для созерцанья.
Будь с честью сей, мой милый, осторожен.
Использован во вред - тупится ножик.


SONNET 95
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
 Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,
 Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!
 O, in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose!
 That tongue that tells the story of thy days,
 Making lascivious comments on thy sport,
 Cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise;
 Naming thy name blesses an ill report.
 O, what a mansion have those vices got
 Which for their habitation chose out thee,
 Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot,
 And all things turn to fair that eyes can see!
    Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege;
    The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge.

NOTES

 XCV. The scandal in relation to his friend, which the poet had previously mentioned and treated as slander, seems (if it be the same) now to have become too obviously true to admit of being rebutted or extenuated. But Mr. W. H.'s grace and beauty adorn and transfigure even his vices. Still there is danger, lest the consequence of vicious indulgence should be felt at last.

 2. Canker. A worm preying upon and defacing the blossom.

 3. Thy budding name. An expression which seems to agree very well with the youth of William Herbert, now about nineteen.

 8. Naming thy name, &c. In consequence of Mr. W. H.'s well-known grace and attractiveness.

 12. Turns. So Q. "turnes." "Beauty's veil turns all things to fair," &c.

 14. The hardest knife, &c. Alluding to the result of excessive indulgence.