Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
That thou consum'st thyself in single life?
Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife;
The world will be thy widow and still weep
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind.
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it.
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.
你因害怕見到寡婦的淚滴
才以獨身消耗自己的生命?
哎呀呀,如果你無后而離世,
世界將像未亡人為你哭靈;
喪偶的世界會哀哀地泣訴,
抱怨你沒有留下你的形象,
而別的寡婦憑孩子的明目
就能將她的丈夫記得端詳。
你看看,浪子在世揮霍金錢,
錢財換主人,世界依然無損;
但美的消費卻規(guī)定著期限,
你留著不用,就毀在你本人。
對自己尚且做可恥的戕害,
如此胸襟對他人不會有愛。