十四行詩 Sonnet 5

Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,
Will play the tyrants to the very same
And that unfair which fairly doth excel:
For never-resting time leads summer on
To hideous winter and confounds him there;
Sap cheque'd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o'ersnow'd and bareness every where:
Then, were not summer's distillation left,
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor no remembrance what it was:
But flowers distill'd though they with winter meet,
Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.

那些時辰曾經用輕盈的細工
織就這衆目共注的可愛明眸，
終有天對它擺出魔王的面孔，
把絕代佳麗剁成龍鍾的老醜：
因爲不捨晝夜的時光把盛夏
帶到猙獰的冬天去把它結果；
生機被嚴霜窒息，綠葉又全下，
白雪掩埋了美，滿目是赤裸裸：
那時候如果夏天尚未經提煉，
讓它凝成香露鎖在玻璃瓶裏，
美和美的流澤將一起被截斷，
美，和美的記憶都無人再提起：
但提煉過的花，縱和冬天抗衡，
只失掉顏色，卻永遠吐着清芬。