SONNET IX

My lady, if I now bereft of you
in this life carry on and do not die,
it seems to me that I offend my love,
and all the joy I held being alive.

But then I must regard the other side,
which is that if of my life I despair
I lose whatever joy from you I'd gain,
and thus of reversed feelings I'm aware.

In this reversal all my faculties
reside now in your absence and in strife.
I don't know what to do in such a state.

They come together only to wage war:
and thus they battle on both night and day,
for hurting me's their only common trait.