Or I shall live your epitaph to make
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten.
From hence your memory death cannot take,
Although in me each part will be forgotten.
Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die.
The earth can yield me but a common grave,
When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
Which eyes not yet created shall o'erread;
And tongues to be your being shall rehearse
When all the breathers of this world are dead.
You still shall live—such virtue hath my pen—
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.
要么我活著寫你的墓志銘,
要么你活著,我在地下腐爛,
雖然我被遺忘得一干二凈,
死神無礙世人對你的懷念。
你的名字享受永恒的生命,
而我,一旦死去,就永離人寰;
大地給予我的是一座荒墳,
你卻在世人的眼睛中長眠。
你的紀念碑就是我的詩詞,
專供未來的眼睛細細觀瞻,
即便現(xiàn)今活著的人全去世,
后來者仍將傳誦你的華誕。
你將永生——我的筆有此神力,
讓你活在人的氣息和嘴里。