《每當我害怕》為濟慈所作的一首詩歌。這是濟慈的第一首伊麗莎白體14行詩,即莎士比亞體,五音步抑揚格,韻式ABAB CDCD EFEF GG(起承轉合),創作于1818年,濟慈當時只有23歲。他患肺結核的弟弟在1819年去世,濟慈因為日夜照看弟弟,也染上了結核病,年僅26歲,這位才華橫溢的浪漫主義詩人便與世長辭了。據稱,濟慈寫這首詩時,已經知道自己患有肺病。
When I Have Fears
每當我害怕
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love; —then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
每當我害怕生命或許就要止息,
我的筆來不及苦集盈溢的思緒,
或把文字變為高高堆起的書籍,
像飽貯的谷倉蓄滿成熟的谷米;
每當我看見那綴滿繁星的夜景,
巨大星云畫出非凡的傳奇幻像,
想到即使運氣幫忙,對我垂青,
生前或許也無法追摹這些云影;
每當我感到那瞬間即逝的美顏,
也許從今以后再也不可能看見,
更無法享受輕松愛情魔力若仙
——于是,在廣袤世界的崖岸,
我形孤影單地佇立,細細思量,
直到愛與聲名沉入烏有的穹蒼。