If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,
Which laboring for invention bear amiss
The second burthen of a former child.
Oh that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done,
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame;
Whether we are mended, or where better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
Oh sure I am the wits of former days,
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
翻譯：
如果學問不再更新，一如從前，
那我們的頭腦，定被漿糊灌滿；
含辛茹苦地，想要創造點奇蹟，
到頭來卻發現，什麼都沒改變；
哦！縱使太陽運行了五百萬年，
但依然還有，回溯青史的竹簡；
自從在古書裏看到，你的肖像，
心裏就首次有了，文字的概念；
讓我通曉，古人曾經怎樣評價，
關於組成你那些，詩體的靈感；
是我們高明，還是他們更優秀，
或者二者相同，其實並無繹演；
喔！我敢肯定前代已經有智賢；
對這爛主題，作過頌揚和稱讚。
推薦理由：這首十四行情詩精選（五十九）是莎士比亞筆下的Sonnet59《治學》，如果你是莎翁的忠實讀者怎能錯過呢？
