Sonnet18

by william shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer"s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

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

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature"s changing course untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow"st,

Nor shall death brag thou wand"rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow"st,

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

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

【譯】

我能否將你比作夏天？

你比夏天更美麗溫婉。

狂風將五月的蓓蕾凋殘，

夏日的勾留何其短暫。

休戀那麗日當空，

轉眼會雲霧迷濛。

休嘆那百花飄零，

催折於無常的天命。

唯有你永恆的夏日常新，

你的美貌亦毫髮無損。

死神也無緣將你幽禁，

你在我永恆的詩中長存。

只要世間尚有人吟誦我的詩篇，

這詩就將不朽，永葆你的芳顏。