How Do I Love Thee？
我是如何地爱你？

How Do I Love Thee？ (Sonnet 43) is probably Elizabeth Browning's most famous love poem. The victim of a thousand wedding readings, it is part of her Sonnets from the Portuguese which was first published in 1850. The poems largely chronicle the romantic period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning who was also an important Victorian poet. During their fifteen happy years in Florence, this couple has never parted from each other for a single day, just as they have never stopped writing love poems to each other before their marriage.
《我是如何地爱你？》(又名《十四行诗43》)是伊丽莎白·勃朗宁的经典爱情诗篇。这首千百次用于婚礼场合吟诵的诗文，选自伊丽莎白于1850年发表的《葡萄牙人的十四行诗集》。这些诗篇大多记叙了诗人与维多利亚著名诗人罗伯特·勃朗宁1846年结婚以前的爱情时光。勃朗宁夫妇在佛罗伦萨度过了幸福的15年，期间从不曾有一天分离过，就像他们结婚前从不曾有一天中断过互相写情诗一样。

The poet begins the poem with a summary of loving her lover in many ways. In the following lines she elaborates on those ways. She will love him “to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach”; she will love him freely and purely; she will love him “with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life”; and finally she will love him “better after death”. The collection got its name because Robert's nickname for her was “my little Portuguese” as she was both tiny and dark. In this poem, she confides in readers all her deep love for her husband, her loyal love otherwise intended for God and religion. Due to this sacrilegious streak, religious communities always hold an opposed stance towards this poem, which, instead, only popularizes it to a higher level. Written in iambic pentameter, this poem, though rhymes strictly bound, is teeming in eloquent expression of passionate love and enduring affection.
诗人一开篇便总结自己对爱人的爱有无数种表达方式。接着，她便一一倾诉自己的衷情。她爱他，“尽我的心灵所能及的深邃、宽广和高度”；她爱他，无拘无束，纯洁如初；她爱他，“以我终生的呼吸、微笑和泪珠”；最后，她爱他“死了我还要更加爱你”。之所以起名为《葡萄牙人的十四行诗集》，是因为伊丽莎白长得又黑又小，勃朗宁常常戏称她为“小葡萄牙人”。在这首诗中，我们可以看到，勃朗宁夫人毫不避讳地把她对于上帝和宗教的爱献给了她的丈夫。正是因为这一点，教会对这首诗一直持反对态度，但这只能使这首诗更受欢迎。此诗为五音步抑扬格，尽管体例严格，但那种热情奔放、生死不渝的爱仍旧表达得淋漓尽致。