Edmund Spenser - Amoretti (75) 汉译

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

But came the waves and washed it away:

Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray,

“Vayne man,” said she, "that doest in vain assay,

A mortal thing so to immortalize

For I myself shall lyke to this decay,

And eek my name bee wyp’ed out likewize.”

“Not so,” (quod I) “let baser things devize,

To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens wryte your glorious name:

Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.”

 

爱情小唱（七十五）

爱德蒙·斯宾塞

 

有一天我把她的名字写在沙滩上，

大浪冲来就把它洗掉。

我把她的名字再一次写上，

潮水又使我的辛苦成为徒劳。

“妄想者”她说，“何必空把心操，

想叫一个必朽的人变成不朽！

我知道我将腐烂如秋草，

我的名字也将化为乌有” 。

“不会，”我说，“让卑劣者费尽计谋

而仍归一死，你却会声名长存，

因为我的诗笔会使你的品德永留，

还会在天上书写你的荣名。

死亡虽然能把全世界征服，

我们的爱情却会使生命不枯。”