William Shakespeare - The Sonnets (54) 汉译

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O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem,

By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!

The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem

For that sweet odour, which doth in it live:

The canker blooms have full as deep a dye,

As the perfumed tincture of the roses,

Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly,

When summer’s breath their masked buds discloses:

But for their virtue only is their show,

They live unwooed, and unrespected fade,

Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so,

Of their sweet deaths, are sweetest odours made:

    And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,

    When that shall vade, by verse distills your truth.

 

54

 

哦，美丽如果有真诚来装饰，

看上去就不知要美丽多少倍！

我们觉得艳丽的玫瑰更艳丽，

是因为它蕴含那种馥郁芳菲。

若仅仅是论色泽之浓艳纷华，

野蔷薇堪与馨香的玫瑰争妍，

当夏风吹开蒙住蓓蕾的面纱，

它们也悬刺丛，也花枝招展：

但因它们唯一的美就是色泽，

故无人眷恋倾慕就悄然衰亡，

可含香的玫瑰却非这样命薄，

它们的香骸艳骨可提炼芳香。

而你也如此，美丽可爱的少年，

当美逝去，诗把你的真诚提炼。

 

（曹明伦 译）