When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-raz'd,
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.
翻譯：
親眼目睹，富麗和豪華的驕傲，
竟被那時光之手，無情地蓋掩；
巍峨的高塔，傾刻間淪為碎瓦，
連至尊銅像也不免，遭受劫難；
我曾見過，那慾壑難填的大海，
怎樣把王國的海岸，侵蝕吞佔；
也曾見過汪洋，又被陸地填滿，
蒼海桑田，得失只在須臾之間；
經歷那些王國的，其興也勃焉，
或者那些朝代的，其亡也忽焉；
興廢的古訓，讓我無限地感慨：
“永失我愛之時，終究不可避免”
象某種，無法選擇的死亡理念；
再恐懼，也只能哭著與它照面。
推薦理由：這首十四行情詩精選（六十四）是莎士比亞筆下的Sonnet64《興廢》，如果你是莎翁的忠實讀者怎能錯過呢？
