William Shakespeare has published 154 sonnets in 1609, usually focus on love. Shakespearean or English sonnet, contains 3 quatrains and a couplet (The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg). Shakespeare didn’t invent, but was the most popular user of the form.Usually the 3 quatrains set up the problem, the couplet offers the solution. The whole sonnet sequence is devoted to a Mr. W. H., whose identity has been one of the unsettled mysteries in literary history. It has probably due to this reason that people have been having wild speculations about William Shakespeare's identity himself. (Some guess that he is a homosexual, others think there never was Shakespeare, but Queen Elizabeth herself has created those wonders.)

• Sonnet 1-126 are addressed to a young man (a mysterious Mr. W. H.), beloved of the poet, of superior beauty and rank;

• Sonnet 1-17: “procreation sonnets”, urging the young man to marry and beget children;

• sonnet 18-26: beauty of the friend;

• sonnet 27-126: an unhappy love triangle;

• sonnet 127-152: a less coherent group involving a mysterious dark lady;

• The final two are translations or adaptations of some version of a Greek epigram.

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, untrimmed.

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 eyescan see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

十四行詩(shī)（第18首）

莎士比亞（譯文：梁實(shí)秋）

我可能把你和夏天相比擬？

你比夏天更可愛(ài)更溫和；

狂風(fēng)會(huì)把五月的花苞吹落地，

夏天也嫌太短促，匆匆而過(guò)：

有時(shí)太陽(yáng)照得太熱，

常常又遮暗他的金色的臉；

美的事物總不免要凋落，

偶然的，或是隨自然變化而流轉(zhuǎn)。

但是你的永恒之夏不會(huì)褪色；

你不會(huì)失去你的俊美的儀容；

死神不能夸說(shuō)你在他的陰影里面走著，

如果你在這不朽的詩(shī)句里獲得了永生；

只要人們能呼吸，眼睛能看東西，

此詩(shī)就會(huì)不朽，使你永久生存下去。

My

Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun

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, be in pink
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．

我的愛(ài)人沒(méi)有陽(yáng)光一般明亮的眼睛

威廉·莎士比亞 (譯者不詳)

我的愛(ài)人沒(méi)有陽(yáng)光一般明亮的眼睛,

也遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)沒(méi)有賽過(guò)珊瑚的紅唇；

她的胸脯比白雪幽暗,

如麻的黑發(fā)長(zhǎng)在她的頭頂。

我見(jiàn)過(guò)紅、白各色的玫瑰,

可玫瑰的顏色在她面頰上全無(wú)蹤影；

如果說(shuō)香水氣味芬芳,

可她的呼吸中香味難尋。

我愛(ài)聽(tīng)她開(kāi)口講話,

雖遠(yuǎn)不如音樂(lè)悅耳動(dòng)聽(tīng)：

我的愛(ài)人走路是常人的步態(tài),

我承認(rèn)從未見(jiàn)過(guò)仙女的身形。

然而,天啊,我的愛(ài)人彌足珍貴,

盡管難與那些美妙的比喻相提并論。

(威廉·莎士比亞(WilliamShakespeare 1564—1616)英國(guó)劇作家人們常常用各種美好的事物來(lái)比喻自己的愛(ài)人。而這首詩(shī)正好相反,直陳那些美好的比喻都不能用在自己的愛(ài)人身上。盡管這也比不上、那也比不上,但無(wú)法用語(yǔ)言解釋清楚的是,自己的愛(ài)人比一切都更加珍貴。)