莎士比亚十四行诗第17首的内容如下：

Who will believe my verse in time to come,

If it were fill'd with your most high deserts？

Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb

Which hides your life and shows not half your parts？

If I could write the beauty of your eyes

And in fresh numbers number all your graces,

The age to come would say 'This poet lies:

Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.'

So should my papers yellow'd with their age

Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue,

And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage

And stretched metre of an antique song:

But were some child of yours alive that time,

You should live twice: in it and in my rhyme.

这首诗的大致翻译是：

将来有谁会相信我的诗篇，

如果它充满了你最高的美德？

虽然天知道这只是一座坟墓，

它埋藏着你的生命，却未能展现你的一半美丽。

如果我能描绘你那迷人的眼神，

用清新的韵律细数你的千娇百媚，

未来的时代会说：“这诗人撒谎——

这样的天姿岂能触及尘世？”

那么我的诗稿随着岁月变黄，

会被视为饶舌老头的无稽之谈，

你的真正价值被当作诗人的狂想，

被拉伸成一首古老的歌谣。

但如果那时你还有孩子在世，

你的生命将得以延续：既在这世间，也在我的诗行里。