Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?
O! know sweet love I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
翻譯：
為什麼我的詩，如此缺乏新意，
離開急劇變化的時代，那麼遠？
為什麼我不能，發現新的方法，
與時俱進、旁徵博引加以變幻？
為何始終一個題材，那麼雷同，
只保持，發掘某株野草的視線；
幾乎每句詩，都提及我的名字，
並透露，自己的身世以及淵源？
摯友你知道嗎？我總是描寫你！
和抒愛一樣，用我擅長的杜撰；
所以我的新作，全都使用舊辭，
米飯已冷，只是重新再炒一遍。
就如太陽每天循例，升落不變；
我老愛叨叨那些，陳年的絮言。
推薦理由：這首十四行情詩精選（七十六）是莎士比亞筆下的Sonnet76《困惑》，如果你是莎翁的忠實讀者怎能錯過呢？
