John Donne was born in Bread Street, London in 1572 to a prosperous Roman Catholic family, a precarious thing at a time when anti-Catholic sentiment was rife in England.(约翰·多恩于1572年出生在伦敦布拉德大街的一个富裕的天主教徒家庭。那时在英国有一种普遍性的不稳定的反天主教情绪) His father, John Donne, was a well-to-do ironmonger(小康的、富裕的五金商人) and citizen of London. Donne's father died suddenly in 1576, and left the three children to be raised by their mother, Elizabeth, the daughter of John Heywood, epigrammatist, and a relative of Sir Thomas More.(多恩的父亲在1576年猝亡,留给他的母亲三个孩子抚养。他的母亲是讽刺诗人约翰·海伍德的女儿,也是托马斯·摩尔的亲戚)
Donne's first teachers were Jesuits. At the age of 11, Donne and his younger brother Henry were entered at Hart Hall, University of Oxford, where Donne studied for three years.(多恩的入门老师是耶酥会士。十一岁时,他与弟弟进入牛津大学的哈特大厅,学习了三年) He spent the next three years at the University of Cambridge, but took no degree at either university because he would not take the Oath of Supremacy required at graduation.(接下来的三年他在剑桥大学学习。但是他没有获得这两所大学中任何一所的学历,因为他拒绝承认国王的宗教权威)He was admitted to study law as a member of Thavies Inn (1591) and Lincoln's Inn (1592), and it seemed natural that Donne should embark upon a legal or diplomatic career.(他在Thavies律师学院和林肯律师学院等地方进行了一系列的法律方面的学习,看起来,他必然会走一条从事法律和外交的职业。)