双语·英美爱情诗歌选 10　十四行诗第75首

10. Sonnet 75

——E. Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

“Vain man,”said she,“that dost in vain assay

A mortal thing so to immortalize,

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eke my name be wiped out likewise.”

“Not so,”quod I,“let baser things devise

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

My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name,

Where, whenas Death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.”