Those hours, that with gentle work did frame

The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,

Will play the tyrants¹ to the very same

And that unfair which fairly doth excel:

For never-resting time leads summer on

To hideous² winter and confounds him there;

Sap cheque'd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,

Beauty o'ersnow'd and bareness every where:

Then, were not summer's distillation³ left,

A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,

Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft⁴,

Nor it nor no remembrance what it was:

But flowers distill'd though they with winter meet,

Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.

那些时辰曾经用轻盈的细工

织就这众目共注的可爱明眸，

终有天对它摆出魔王的面孔，

把绝代佳丽剁成龙锺的老丑：

因为不舍昼夜的时光把盛夏

带到狰狞的冬天去把它结果；

生机被严霜窒息，绿叶又全下，

白雪掩埋了美，满目是赤裸裸：

那时候如果夏天尚未经提炼，

让它凝成香露锁在玻璃瓶里，

美和美的流泽将一起被截断，

美，和美的记忆都无人再提起：

但提炼过的花，纵和冬天抗衡，

只失掉颜色，却永远吐着清芬。