#sonnet 93

Sonnet 93 by William Shakespeare (read by Sir John Gielgud)

So shall I live, supposing thou art true, Like a deceived husband; so love's face May still seem love to me, though altered new; Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place:

For there can live no hatred in thine eye, Therefore in that I cannot know thy change. In many's looks, the false heart's history Is writ in moods, and frowns, and wrinkles strange.

But heaven in thy creation did decree That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell; Whate'er thy thoughts, or thy heart's workings be, Thy looks should nothing thence, but sweetness tell.

   How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow,    If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show!

If some time your breast pauses, if something stops moving, stops burning through your veins, if the voice in your mouth escapes without becoming word, Matilde, my love, leave your lips half-open: because that final kiss should linger with me, it should stay still, forever, in your mouth, so that it goes with me, too, in my death. I will die kissing your crazy cold mouth, caressing the lost buds of your body, looking for the light of your closed eyes. And so when the earth received our embrace we will go blended in a single death, forever living the eternity of a kiss.