William Shakespeare - The Sonnets - XVII

說起莎士比亞的十四行詩, 人們通常會推薦第十八首. 不過, 這次我想分享第十七首.

XVII

WHO will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say ‘This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.’
So should my papers, yellow'd with their age,
Be scorn'd, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice,—in it, and in my rhyme.

以下是我的非專業譯文, 沒有押韻和調整音步音尺, 只是粗略譯出文意而已:

如果我把你最崇高的美德都寫進這首詩,
將來有誰會相信我的詩句呢?
雖然, 天知道, 這首詩只是埋葬你生命的一座墳,
不足以展現你的生命--------連一半也不能.
如我的文筆足以形容你雙目的流盼,
如我能用韻律細述你的優美,
將來的人一定會說: "這詩人說謊!
如此天姿何曾落入凡間?"
於是我的詩冊隨著歲月流逝而薰黃,
被人們當作饒舌老頭般唾棄.
而你的真容竟被誣蔑為詩人瘋狂的創作,
被視為一首古歌誇張的韻律而已.
　　但, 若那時候你仍有子嗣在世,
　　你將再活兩次---------在他身上, 在這首詩中.