莎翁的十四行诗一共154首,其中第18首《我能否将您与夏日的一天比较?》是这组诗的精华。

梦冉译

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

我能否将您与夏日的一天比较?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

那表现得更可爱,更为温婉

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May

粗糙的风摇晃着五月里爱娇的花蕾

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

而且夏天的约期太短暂:

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines

有时天堂闪烁而来的眸光太热烈

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

那辉耀的容光又常黯然下去

And every fair from fair sometimes declines

每个芬芳的因有时也坠落了其果

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed

因缘际会,自然规律里,或许终于凋谢

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

可是,永夏不会杳无

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

不会消减其拥有的氤氲气息

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, 

永不让死神能吹嘘夏天流落在他的阴影

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

当诗句不朽在流逝的光阴里

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

而人们尚在呼吸,尚能看见

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

这诗就活着,而这诗赋予您生命

2004/11/12




注:这照片是我2004年在西湖边拍的夏荷,看那风中簇拥的荷叶与清雅的白荷.