When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded, to decay;
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate—
That Time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
當我看見時間的毒手毀棄
往古時代創(chuàng)建的豐功偉績,
高樓大廈被一一夷為平地,
不朽的青銅在浩劫中銷蝕;
當我看見建在海濱的王國,
被那饑餓的狂濤巨浪吞占,
堅實的土地又將水域強奪,
真可謂世事無常,滄海桑田!
我看見了盛衰的不斷反復,
看見了壯麗如何走向腐朽,
斷垣殘壁教我這樣去思索:
時間最終會將我的愛奪走。
死一般的惶恐,但別無選擇,
我因得而悲,只怕一旦失卻。