Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a colection of poems to her husband and she was so shy about declaring her love so openly that she thinly disguised them as a translation that she called "Sonnets from the Portuguese". The collection as a whole is unusual becuase it is mostly written from happiness. Sadness is a lot more photogenic, and unrequited love is so much easier to write from.

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
'I love her for her smile---her look---her way
Of speaking gently,---for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'---
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee,---and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,---
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

Si vas a amarme, que sea por no más
que el amor mismo. Y no digas
"la amo por su sonrisa ---su mirada--- su forma
de hablar suave, por un detalle del pensamiento
que encaja bien en el mío, y que me dio
un sentimiento dulce, en tal día"
Porque estas cosas solas, Amor Mío, pueden
cambiar, hasta por ti, y el amor, así creado,
igual se destruiría. Ni me ames por
sentir pena, cuando secas mis mejillas ---
¡Puede olvidar el llanto, quien viva
contigo mucho tiempo, y así perder tu amor!
Ámame por amor mismo, para así
amar siempre, toda la eternidad.