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 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 owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

我能否把你比作夏季的一天?

你可是更加可愛，更加溫婉;

狂風會吃落五月的嬌花嫩瓣，

夏季出租的日期由未免太短;

有時候蒼天的巨眼照得太灼熱，

他金光閃耀的圣顏也會被遮暗;

每一樣美呀，總會失去沒而凋落，

被時機或者自然的代謝所摧殘;

但是你永久的夏天絕不會凋枯，

你永遠不會喪失你美的形象;

死神夸不著你在他影子里躑躅，

你將在不朽的詩中與時間同長，

只要人類在呼吸，眼睛看得見，

我這詩就活著，是你的生命綿延。