Sonnet 116 [English translation]

I will not acknowledge obstacles to marriage between two minds that love

each other. Love is not love

if it changes when it meets change.

Or disappears if the beloved disappears.

Oh no, it is a constant mark

That looks at storms without being shaken;

It is the star that guides every wandering boat

Its worth is unknown, though we can measure the size of it.

Love is not in Time's power, though rosy lips and cheeks

Are within his reach:

Love doesn't change with the passage of brief hours and weeks,

But lasts even until Doomsday.

If I'm wrong and proved wrong

I have never written and no man ever loved.

• Artist:William Shakespeare