Nō ngā tino mea, ka tūmanakohia he hua

Kia kore e mate rawa te puāwai o te ātaahua,

Kia kawe tonu te kāwai i tōna mahara

Ahakoa tauheke noa ia i te wā:

Tēnā ko koe, tāmauria ki ōu ake kamo pīata —

Tou ana i tō ahikā ki tōu hau anake.

Whānau mai nei ko Nihoroa nā Te Makuru

Tū mai ko koe, tō ake hoariri takahi mauri.

Ināianei, e te rea kahurangi o te ao,

Kawainga kotahi o te kōanga hahaki,

Kei te nehu koe i tō hua i tō kōpuku,

Ā, e taku rorirori, ka moumou kaiponu koe:

Arohaina rā te ao nei, kei kaihorotia

Tōu nama ki a ia e kōrua, ko Mate.

From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory;

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,

Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,

Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.

Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament

And only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within thine own bud buries thy content,

And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.