Never give all the heart

W. B. Yeats

Never give all the heart, for love

Will hardly seem worth thinking of

To passionate¹ women if it seem

Certain, and they never dream

That it fades out from kiss to kiss;

For everything that's lovely is

But a brief, dreamy, kind delight.

O never give the heart outright²,

For they, for all smooth lips can say,

Have given their hearts up to the play.

And who could play it well enough

If deaf and dumb and blind with love?

He that made this knows all the cost,

For he gave all his heart and lost.

切莫将心尽献

威廉·巴特勒·叶芝

切莫将心尽献，

对于激情似火的女人

若确定爱似乎不值多虑，

她们定未从梦中预见

爱会从次次亲吻中淡去;

一切美好的东西

不过是昙花一现，梦幻般的欢喜。

哦，切莫将心尽献彻底，

因为所有女人都自诩，

已献出其心去迎合爱的游戏。

如果对爱耳聋，拙舌，目盲，

谁又能在游戏中将爱珍惜？

作此劝之人知道代价昂贵无比，

因他曾将真心尽献而损失殆尽。