Sonnets of William Shakespeare-Sonnet 9

　　That thou consumest thyself in single life?

　　Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die.

　　The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife;

　　The world will be thy widow and still weep

　　That thou no form of thee hast left behind,

　　When every private widow well may keep

　　By children's eyes her husband's shape in mind.

　　Look, what an unthrift in the world doth spend

　　Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;

　　But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,

　　And kept unused, the user so destroys it.

　　No love toward others in that bosom sits

　　That on himself such murderous shame commits.

　　是否因為怕打濕你寡婦的眼，

　　你在獨身生活里消磨你自己?

　　哦，如果你不幸無后離開人間，

　　世界就要哀哭你，像喪偶的妻。

　　世界將是你寡婦，她永遠傷心

　　你生前沒給她留下你的容貌;

　　其他的寡婦，靠兒女們的眼睛，

　　反能把良人的肖像在心里長保。

　　看吧，浪子在世上的種種浪費

　　只換了主人，世界仍然在享受;

　　但美的消耗在人間將有終尾：

　　留著不用，就等于任由它腐朽。

　　這樣的心決不會對別人有愛，

　　既然它那么忍心把自己戕害。