Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owes;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

我怎樣能把你比做夏日？

你比它更加可愛而溫婉：

疾風無情擊打五月嬌蕊，

夏季的租期如曇花一現。

有時天庭之眼照耀熾烈，

往往它的金光轉為陰暗；

一切美好不免凋零消謝，

聽憑機緣或時序的摧殘。

唯君永恆之夏永不凋零，

君之花容青春永駐長存；

死神難誇你徘徊其陰影，

因你定格在永恆的詩文。

但凡世間存氣息鑑文采，

此詩長存君亦與之同在。

（譯：邱錦榮，臺灣莎士比亞學會）