Sonnets(William Shakespeare)
很快看完了莎士比亞的14行詩。這些詩和之前的喬叟、或現在正在看的歌德的浮士德相較都差了一大截。可能我對於莎士比亞詩作的期望值太高了吧，看完以後，我沒法認同莎士比亞那種喜歡男生的心情，可能因為如此，我也沒法領會其中好的地方。歌德在看中國文學及中國詩的時候，能夠透過當時糟糕的翻譯領會中國的精神及文學的美，我想這方面我還差歌德太多。
莎士比亞的14行詩共有154首，於1609年初次發行。格式都是14行的詩句，最後兩句一定是整首詩的重點。在詩集中涉及了3個人物：一個詩人、詩人朋友及Dark Lady。而在內容上，第1~126首是詩人寫給他的男性友人，詩人讚送他的美，希望他能多生小孩，藉這樣的方式及詩作來保留這男性友人的美。第127~152首寫Dark lady，第153~154是練習的作品，在河洛出版社出的莎士比亞全集，譯者梁宗岱說這兩首詩是否為莎士比亞寫的，到目前並無定論。不過這對於單純要欣賞莎士比亞作品的讀者應該不是一個重要的問題。
對於抱持純粹欣賞而非研究、討論文學的心情去看這些詩的我來說，原文的隔行押韻在聽覺上並沒有給人美好的感覺；而內容上也沒有什麼新意。像因為在詩中自己的愛人永遠不會老，所以要用自己的創作去保存愛人即將逝去的青春，或是對於男子或Dark Lady美麗容貌的形容法…這些，可能是因為這些都被後人模仿太多次了，所以現在看起來都很老套。
以下是一些摘錄的句子，因為對這些詩沒什麼感覺，所以摘錄的都是很紅、很芭樂的段落：
(第18首)
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Tough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all to short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
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 ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
(第129首一段描寫性的追求)
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.
(第130首描寫dark Lady)
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
(第138首描寫老人戀愛時不要提到年紀一句)
And age in love, loves not to have years told
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