莎士比亞十四行情詩精選（五十九）

If there be nothing new, but that which is
　　Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,
　　Which laboring for invention bear amiss
　　The second burthen of a former child.
　　Oh 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 where better they,
　　Or whether revolution be the same.
　　Oh sure I am the wits of former days,
　　To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
　　翻譯：
如果學問不再更新，一如從前，
　　那我們的頭腦，定被漿糊灌滿；
　　含辛茹苦地，想要創造點奇蹟，
　　到頭來卻發現，什麼都沒改變；
　　哦！縱使太陽運行了五百萬年，
　　但依然還有，回溯青史的竹簡；
　　自從在古書里看到，你的肖像，
　　心裡就首次有了，文字的概念；
　　讓我通曉，古人曾經怎樣評價，
　　關於組成你那些，詩體的靈感；
　　是我們高明，還是他們更優秀，
　　或者二者相同，其實並無繹演；
　　喔！我敢肯定前代已經有智賢；
　　對這爛主題，作過頌揚和稱讚。
　　推薦理由：這首十四行情詩精選（五十九）是莎士比亞筆下的Sonnet59《治學》，如果你是莎翁的忠實讀者怎能錯過呢？