SONNET 104	PARAPHRASE
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,	To me, my friend, you can never be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,	For as you were when we first saw each other,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold	Such is your beauty still. Three cold winters
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,	Have shaken the splendour of three summers from the foliage,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd	Three wonderful springs have I seen turn to autumn
In process of the seasons have I seen,	In the course of the four seasons,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,	The perfumed scents of three Aprils burned up in three hot Junes,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.	Since first I saw you in all your youthful glory, and you are still young.
Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,	Ah, but beauty still moves forward, like the hands of a clock,
Steal from his figure and no pace perceived;	Steal forward, with no motion to be observed.
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,	In this way your appearance, which seem to me unchanged,
Hath motion and mine eye may be deceived:	Is subject to Time's movement, and my eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred;	Out of my fear that you will lose your looks, hear this, you unborn generations;
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.	Before you came into existence beauty was already dead.