The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed
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.
當(dāng)我眼見前代的富麗和豪華
被時(shí)光的手毫不留情地磨滅;
當(dāng)巍峨的塔我眼見淪為碎瓦,
連不朽的銅也不免一場浩劫;
當(dāng)我眼見那欲壑難填的大海
一步一步把岸上的疆土侵蝕,
汪洋的水又漸漸被陸地覆蓋,
失既變成了得,得又變成了失;
當(dāng)我看見這一切擾攘和廢興,
或者連廢興一旦也化為烏有;
毀滅便教我再三這樣地反省:
時(shí)光終要跑來把我的愛帶走。
哦,多么致命的思想!它只能夠
哭著去把那刻刻怕失去的占有。