每日一首Sonnet (44)

XLIV.

1. If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
2. Injurious distance should not stop my way;
3. For then despite of space I would be brought,
4. From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
5. No matter then although my foot did stand
6. Upon the farthest earth removed from thee;
7. For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
8. As soon as think the place where he would be.
9. But ah! thought kills me that I am not thought,
10. To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
11.But that, so much of earth and water wrought,
12. I must attend time's leisure with my moan,
13.Receiving nought by elements so slow
14. But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.

Commentary:
If my body could travel with the ease and alacrity with which my thoughts do, I could be with you wherever you are. But the thought itself (that my body is not thought and has not its ability to travel everywhere) is a killing thought. Being so much composed of the two heavy elements, earth and water, I must patiently wait till you return. The only profit received from these two coarse elements is the heaviness of tears, which bear witness both to my sorrow and to yours.
The following sonnet, 55, takes up the theme of the four elements and continues the thought expressed in this one


Note:
1. If my body were made of thought (rather than heavy substances). Thought is here a noun.
dull substance = heavy, gross material.

2. Injurious (harmful) because it keeps him from his beloved.
should not stop my way = would not bar my path, would not prevent my journeying.

3. despite = in spite of, to spite.
space = distance, separation.
I would be brought = I would be able to travel, to come. (If I wished it) I could be brought.

4. From places far off, to where you are at present.
where thou dost stay = where your present abode is.

5. It would not matter that my foot might be standing etc.

6. earth = land, country, ground, part of the earth.
removed form thee = distant from you.

7. The imagery of thought jumping nimbly from place to place, travelling faster than any traveller, goes back to Homer.

8. he = it. This refers back to thought in the previous line.
where he would be = in the place where thought wishes itself to be.

9. The fact that I am dull substance, and not thought, is enough to kill me with despair, for thought could leap etc.

10. leap large lenths... miles - the repetition of the l sound and the word stress gives the impression of taking enormous strides over vast areas of country.
when thou art gone = when you are absent from me.

11. But, on the contrary, (the fact) that my body is largely composed of earth and water. wrought = made out of.

12. I am at the mercy of (must attend) time's whims, which causes me anguish. The image is of a servant attending an imperious master.

13. 13-14. The earth and water which make up my body do not benefit me at all. I receive nothing (naught) from them. They only produce tears, which are emblematic (badges) of the sorrow we both (either) feel as a result of our separation.

14. See note above.
heavy = solid and material, like the dull substance of my flesh. Causing the heaviness of sorrow.