*14.EEB

第十四首

Elizabeth Barrett Browning _Sonnets from the Portuguese_, No. XIV

如果你一心要十爱十我，那就别为了么，

If thou must love me, let it be for nought

只是为了十爱十才十爱十我。别这么讲：

Except for loves sake only. Do not say

“我十爱十她，为了她的一笑，她的模样，

`I love her for her smile ... her look ... her way

她柔语的声气；为了她这感触

Of speaking gently, ... for a trick of thought

正好合我的心意，那天里，的确

That falls in well with mine, and certes brought [certes: certainly]

给我带来满怀的喜悦和舒畅。”

A sense of pleasant ease on such a day --

亲十爱十的，这些好处都不能持常，

For these things in themselves, Belov\`ed, may

会因你而变，而这样唱出的十爱十曲

Be changed, or change for thee, -- and love, so wrought [wrought: worked]

也将这样哑寂。也别十爱十我因为你

May be unwrought so. Neither love me for

又怜又惜地给我揩干了泪腮，

Thine own dear pitys wiping my cheeks dry, --

一个人会忘了哭泣，当她久受你

A creature might forget to weep, who bore

温柔的慰安－－却因此失了你的十爱十。

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!

十爱十我，请只是为了那十爱十的意念，

But love for loves sake, that evermore

那你就能继续地十爱十，十爱十我如深海。

Thou mayst love on, through loves eternity.

Footnote:

This sonnet is little more than a copy of the following poem

which some two and a half centuries earlier.

Love not me for comely grace,

For my pleasing eye or face,

Nor for any outward part,

No, nor for my constant heart, --

For those may fail, or turn to ill,

So thou and I shall sever:

Keep therefore a true womans eye,

And love me still, but know not why --

So hast thou the same reason still

To doat upon me ever!

ANON.

Source: The Golden Treasury of The Best Songs and Lyrical Poems

In The English Language, Oxford University Press, 1929.