Lovers’ Infiniteness by John Donne – a prose version

There are plenty of analyses out there of the poem, so I thought it might be nice to do a prose translation instead (which would function as a line by line explanation in a way). First is the poem in full, then my prose translation.

Original poem

If yet I have not all thy love,
Dear, I shall never have it all;
I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move,
Nor 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; whatever 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.

Prose translation 

If I don’t have all of your love yet, then Dear, I will never have all of it. I cannot breathe another sigh to move you or beg another tear to fall for you; And all of my treasures, which should have been enough to purchase you by now – sighs, tears, promises and letters/words – I have already spent all of them. But no more can be owed to me, than what was meant to be given to me when we made the bargain. If your gift of love to me then was only partial, in that you gave some of your love to me and some to other people, then Dear, I will never have all of your love.

Or if back then you gave me all of your love, that amount of love was only all of the love which you had back then. But if, since then, in your heart, there has been new love that has been created, by the presence of other men who still have their stocks of treasures in full and unused, and they can, outbid me for you by their tears, sighs, promises and letters/words, then these new loves in your heart will create new fears for me, because you have not promised these new loves to me. And yet, in fact, your gift of love was a general one; The ground of your heart is mine. Whatever new loves that grow there, dear, I will have all of that too.

But I would not have all of your love yet. He who has all of it can’t have anymore of it; and since everyday my love grows, you should have new rewards for me in store. You can’t give me your heart every day. If you can give it to me everyday, then you have never given it at all. Love’s riddles are that, though you part with your heart, it stays at home, and by losing your heart, you save it. But we will have a way to love that is more liberal, rather than giving away our hearts to each other, we will join our hearts, so we will become one and one another’s all.

Notes of explanation for a few particular lines:

1. ‘You can’t give me your heart every day. If you can give it to me everyday, then you have never given it at all.’ – In the sense like, if I only had one unit of love, and if I give that to you today, and tomorrow I also claim to also give you another unit of love, then that means that I never gave my original unit of love to you at all. I was lying.
2. ‘Love’s riddles are that, though you part with your heart, it stays at home, and by losing your heart, you save it.’ Love’s riddles are that though you have to give away your heart (ie. by loving other people), your (literal) heart stays at home (in your body), but by giving away your heart (by loving other people), you save your heart (because humans need to love and be loved).