十四行詩 Sonnet 59
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child!
O, that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done!
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame;
Whether we are mended, or whether better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
O, sure I am, the wits of former days
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
如果天下無新事，現在的種種
從前都有過，我們的頭腦多上當，
當它苦心要創造，卻懷孕成功
一個前代有過的嬰孩的重擔！
哦，但願歷史能用回溯的眼光
（縱使太陽已經運行了五百周），
在古書裏對我顯示你的肖像，
自從心靈第一次寫成了句讀！--
讓我曉得古人曾經怎樣說法，
關於你那雍容的體態的神奇；
是我們高明，還是他們優越，
或者所謂演變其實並無二致。
哦，我敢肯定，不少才子在前代
曾經讚揚過遠不如你的題材。
