雙語·英美愛情詩歌選 2　瞎子吃下許多蒼蠅

2. The Blind Eateth Many a Fly

——Anonym

Look well about, ye that lovers be;

Let not your lustes lead you to dotage.

Be not enamored on all things that ye see——

Samson the fort and Solomon the sage,

Deceived were, for all their great corage.

Men deem it right, that they see with eye——

Beware, therefore: the blind eateth many a fly.

I mean, of women, for all their cheeres quaint,

Trust them not too much——their troth is but geason.

The fairest outward well can they paint;

Their steadfastness endureth but a season,

For they feign friendliness and worken treason.

And for they are changeable naturally,

Beware, therefore: the blind eateth many a fly.

What wight alive trusteth on their cheers,

Shall have at last his guerdon and his meed,

For women can shave nearer than razors or shears.

All is not gold that shineth——men, take heed.

Their gall is hid under a sugared weed.

It is full quaint their fantasy to espy.

Beware, therefore: the blind eateth many a fly.

Though all the world do its busy cure

To make women stand in stableness,

It will not be, it is against nature:

The world is done when they lack doubleness,

For they can laugh and love not——this is express.

To trust on them, it is but fantasy.

Beware, therefore: the blind eateth many a fly.

Women of kinde have conditions three:

The first is they be full of deceit;

To spin also is theire property;

And women have a wonderful conceit.

For they can weep oft, and all is a sleight,

And ever when they list, the tear is in the eye.

Beware, therefore: the blind eateth many a fly.

In sooth to say, though all the earth so wan

Were parchment smooth, white, and scribable,

And the great sea that called is the ocean

Were turned into ink blacker than sable,

Every stick a pen, each man a scrivener able,

Not could they then write woman's treachery.

Beware, therefore: the blind eateth many a fly.