SONNET 120	PARAPHRASE
That you were once unkind befriends me now,	The fact you were once unkind helps me now,
And for that sorrow, which I then did feel,	for the pain I felt then,
Needs must I under my transgression bow	makes me bow under yoke of my wrongs,
Unless my nerves were brass or hammer'd steel.	because I don't have the nerves of steel.
For if you were by my unkindness shaken	If you were hurt by my cruelty
As I by yours, you've passed a hell of time,	as I was by yours, you must have felt like hell,
And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken	and I, selfish and blind, did not take the time
To weigh how once I suffered in your crime.	to realize how much I suffered, (as you do now).
O that our night of woe might have rememb'red	If only that night of sorrow had shown me
My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits,	deeply, how hard sorrow hits,
And soon to you, as you to me, then tend'red	for then we mutually could have offered
The humble salve, which wounded bosoms fits -	solace and comfort to each other -
But that your trespass now becomes a fee.	But your past wrong becomes a fee.
Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.	I paid for yours and now you must pay for mine.