英文名篇选读

1.

Edmund Spenser

Amoretti

Sonnet 75

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washè

d it away:

Agayne

I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.

“

Vayne man

”

, sayd she,

“

that doest in vaine assay,

A mortall thing so to immortalize,

For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,

And eek my name bee wypè

d out lykewize.

”

“

Not so

”,

quod I,

“

let baser things devize

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

My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens wryte your glorious name.

Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,

Our love shall live, and later life renew.

”

2.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Spring

When daisies pied

and violets blue,

And lady-smocks all silver-white,

And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

5

Mocks married men; for thus sings he,

?

Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo?

: Oh word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,

10

And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,

When turtles

tread, and rooks, and daws,

And maidens bleach their summer smocks

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he,

15

?

Cuckoo;

Cuckoo, cuckoo

?:

Oh word of fear,

Unpleasing to a married ear!

Hamlet

III, I, 56-88

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

艾德蒙特

·< /p>

斯宾塞

（

1552-1599

，

毕业于剑桥

大学，创 立了优美流畅的

“

斯宾塞体

”

，被称

为

“

诗人的诗人 。

”

①

< /p>

意大利语，意为

“

爱情小唱

”

。

②

斯宾

塞十 四行诗的

韵脚安排

是

abab

bcbc cdcd ee.

③

伊丽莎白时期英文的共同形式：

y=I,

er=ir,

词尾有多余的

e,

过去分词词尾

用

d, -ful

常作

-full.

①《春之歌》选自莎翁的早期喜剧

Love’

s

Labour’

s Lost

（

《爱的徒劳》

，

1594

）

②

variegated

③

turtledoves

卞之琳译：

活下去还是不活：这是问题。

1

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

Macbeth (V

, v, 16-28)

Macbeth.

She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

要做到高贵，究竟该忍气吞声

来容受狂暴的命运矢石交攻呢，

还是该挺身反抗无边的苦恼，

扫它个干净？死，就是睡眠

就这样；而如果睡眠就等于了结了

心痛以及千百种身体要担受的

皮痛肉痛，那该是天大的好事，

正求之不得啊！死，就是睡眠；

睡眠，也许要做梦，这就麻烦了！

我们一旦摆脱了尘世的牵缠，

在死的睡眠里还会做些什么梦，

一想到就不能不踌躇。这一点顾虑

正好使灾难变成了长期的折磨。

谁甘心忍受人世的鞭挞和嘲弄，

忍受压迫者虐待、傲慢者凌辱，

忍受失恋的痛苦、法庭的拖延、

衙门的横暴，做埋头苦干的大才、

受作威作福的小人一脚踢出去，

如果他只消自己来使一下尖刀

就可以得到解脱啊？谁甘心挑担子，

拖着疲累的生命，呻吟，流汗，

要不是怕一死就去了没有人回来的

那个从未发现的国土，怕那边

还不知会怎样，因此意志动摇了，

因此便宁愿忍受目前的灾殃，

而不愿投奔另一些未知的昔难？

这样子，顾虑使我们都成了懦夫，

也就这样子，决断决行的本色

蒙上了惨白的一层思虑的病容；

本可以轰轰烈烈的大作大为，

由于这一点想不通，就出了别扭，

失去了行动的名分。

人生不过是一个行走的影子，

一个在 舞台上指手划

脚的笨拙的怜人，登场片刻，便在无声无息中悄然

退去，这是一个愚人所讲的故事，充满了喧哗和骚

2

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

3.

动，却一无所指。

《麦克白》

Ben

Jonson

(1572? -1637)

，英国剧作家、诗人、演

员、学者、批评家、翻译 家、诗派的领袖，

1616

年封为桂冠诗人（

< br>Poet Laureate

）

。所选的是琼生一

首有名的抒情诗，歌颂的是

Platonic love or courtly

love.

Pledge: drink a toast

祝酒

Doth(does):

由于音节的需要而用的垫词，非加重语

气，以下

6

、

13

行同。

Might I: if I might

Sup:sip

Of: some of

Jove?s Nectar:

天神的美酒。

Late:lately

But...:but

if

you

merely

breathe

on

it.

Did?st

breathe

是现在虚拟式。

T

H

E

F

O

R

E

S

T .

IX.

—

SONG.

—

TO CELIA.

Drink to me only with thine eyes,

And I will pledge with mine

Or leave a kiss but in the cup,

And I'll not look for wine.

The thirst, that from the soul doth rise, 5

Doth ask a drink divine :

But might I of Jove's nectar sup,

I would not change for thine.

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,

Not so much honoring thee, 10

As giving it a hope, that there

It could not wither'd be.

But thou thereon did

?

st only breathe,

And sent'st it back to me :

Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, 15

Not of itself, but thee.

4.

Of Studies

Francis Bacon

论读书

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.

读书足以怡情，足以博彩，足以长才。其怡

Their

chief

use

for

delight,

is

in

privateness

and

情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其博彩也，最

retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is

见于高谈阔论之中；

其长才也，

最见于 处世

判事之际。

in the judgment and disposition of business.

For

expert

men

can

execute,

and

perhaps

judge

of

练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝

particular s,

one

by

one;

but

the

general

counsels,

and

节，然纵观统筹，全局策划，则舍好学深思

the

plots

and

marshalling

of

affairs,

come

best

form

者莫属。

those that are learned.

To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them

too

much

for

ornament,

is

affectation;

to

make

读书费时过多易惰，

文采藻 饰太盛则矫，

全

judgement

wholly

by

their

rules,

is

the

humour

of

a

凭条文断事乃学究故态。

scholar.

读书补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足，

读书然后知如何

They

perfect

nature,

and

are

perfected

by

experience:

盖天生才干犹如自然花草，

for

natural

abilities

are

like

natural

plants,

that

need

修剪移接，而书中所示，如不以经验范之，

3

proyning (pruning) by study; and studies themselves do

则又大而无当。

give forth directions too much at large, except they be

有一技之长者鄙读书，

无知者羡读书，

唯明

bounded in by experience.

智之士用读书，

然书并不以用处告人，

用书

Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them,

之智不在书中，而在书外，全凭观察得之。

and

wise

men

use

them;

for

they

teach

not

their

own

use;

but

that

is

a

wisdom

without

them,

and

above

读书时不可存心诘难读者，

不可尽信 书上所

them, won by observation.

言，亦不可只为寻章摘句，而应推敲细思。

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and

take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to

书有可浅尝者，

有可吞食者，

少数则须咀嚼

消化。换言 之，有只需读其部分者，有只须

weigh and consider.