Shakespeare's Sonnet Sunday: Sonnet 3

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remember'd not to be,
Die single and thine image dies with thee.



What do I get from this sonnet? Its a continuation of Sonnet1 and 2.

1.  Look in the mirror, whose face do you see?
   
2.  You should make offspring that look like you.
   
3.  If you don't work at making yourself look beautiful,
   
4.  You cheat the world and some mother that could give birth.
   
5.  Where is this woman that won't have sex with you,
   
6.  who hates the thought of being a wife?
   
7.  Who is foolish to love death
   
8.  or his selfishness to forget carrying on his lineage?
   
9.  You look just like your mother...
   
10.  when she was young.
    
11.  You can see now with your eyes,
    
12.  what she was like back then even though she has wrinkles - a beauty.
    
13.  But if you live, determined not to be remembered,
    
14. then you will die childless, and your beauty will die with you. 

Maybe not a literal translation. All I can say about it is: Good grief, man, have a child already, how hard can it be?

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 3. Ed. Amanda Mabillard. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/3detail.html >.