斯宾塞爱情十四行诗选之七十五

Sonnet LXXV

   by Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.
"Vayne man," sayd she, "that doest in vaine assay.
A mortall thing so to immortalize,
For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,
and eek my name bee wyped out lykewize."
"Not so," quod I, "let baser things devize,
To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens wryte your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."

斯宾塞爱情十四行诗选之七十五

              埃德蒙•斯宾塞

有一天，我把她名字写在沙滩，
但海浪来了，把那个名字冲跑；
我用手再一次把它写了一遍，
但潮水来了，把我的辛苦又吞掉。
“自负的人啊，”她说，“你这是徒劳，
妄想使世间凡俗的事物不朽；
我本身就会像这样云散烟消，
我的名字也同样会化为乌有。”
“不，”我说，“让低贱的东西去筹谋
死亡之路，但你将靠美名而永活：
我的诗将使你罕见的美德长留，
并把你光辉的名字写天国。
死亡可以征服整个的世界，
我们的爱将长存，生命永不灭。”

埃德蒙•斯宾塞简介