William Shakespeare - The Sonnets (59) 汉译

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If there be nothing new, but that which is,

Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,

Which labouring for invention bear amis

The second burthen of a former child!

O that record could with a backward look,

Even of five hundred courses of the sun,

Show me your image in some antique book,

Since mind at first in character was done.

That I might see what the old world could say,

To this composed wonder of your frame,

Whether we are mended, or whether better they,

Or whether revolution be the same.

O sure I am the wits of former days,

To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

 

59

 

如果天下无新事，现在的种种

从前都有过，我们的头脑多上当，

当它苦心要创造，却怀孕成功

一个前代有过的婴孩的重担！

哦，但愿历史能用回溯的眼光

（纵使太阳已经运行了五百周），

在古书里对我显示你的肖像，

自从心灵第一次写成了句读！--

让我晓得古人曾经怎样说法，

关于你那雍容的体态的神奇；

是我们高明，还是他们优越，

或者所谓演变其实并无二致。

哦，我敢肯定，不少才子在前代

曾经赞扬过远不如你的题材。

 

（梁宗岱 译）