Lovers' Infiniteness

LOVERS' INFINITENESS by John Donne

In een notendop

De dichter klaagt dat zijn geliefde zich nog niet helemaal aan hem heeft overgegeven, ondanks al zijn inspanningen. Ze zou nu of later geen liefde voor anderen moeten opsparen. Hij wil wel dat zij iets van haar liefde in reserve houdt, zodat ze kunnen genieten van een steeds hechter wordende relatie.

IF yet I have not all thy love,

Dear, I shall never have it all ;

I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move,

Nor can intreat one other tear to fall ;

And all my treasure, which should purchase thee,

Sighs, tears, and oaths, and letters I have spent ;

Yet no more can be due to me,

Than at the bargain made was meant.

If then thy gift of love were partial,

That some to me, some should to others fall,

Dear, I shall never have thee all.

Or if then thou gavest me all,

All was but all, which thou hadst then ;

But if in thy heart since there be or shall

New love created be by other men,

Which have their stocks entire, and can in tears,

In sighs, in oaths, and letters, outbid me,

This new love may beget new fears,

For this love was not vow'd by thee.

And yet it was, thy gift being general ;

The ground, thy heart, is mine ; what ever shall

Grow there, dear, I should have it all.

Yet I would not have all yet.

He that hath all can have no more ;

And since my love doth every day admit

New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store ;

Thou canst not every day give me thy heart,

If thou canst give it, then thou never gavest it ;

Love's riddles are, that though thy heart depart,

It stays at home, and thou with losing savest it ;

But we will have a way more liberal,

Than changing hearts, to join them ; so we shall

Be one, and one another's all.