SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS Sonnet 2 F
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow，
四十个冬日围攻你的额角，
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field，
在你这美的领地挖下深壕，
Thy youth’s proud livery so gazed on now，
属你年青的锦袍，当下教多少人倾倒，
Will be a tatter’d weed of small worth held：
终将成为不值一文的败絮废草：
Then being asked where all thy beauty lies，
将来人们问你：你的美，
where all the treasure of thy lusty days？
属你青春年华的宝藏，如今生在何处？
To say，within thine own deep sunken eyes，
你说，在你深陷的眼眶里，
Were an all-eating shame，and thriftless praise.
尽是贪婪的羞耻，与徒劳的赞赏
How much more praise deserv’d thy beauty’s use，
而你善用了美，才值得赞美
If thou couldst answer ‘ This fair child of mine shall sum my count and make my old excuse，’
若你回答 ‘ 我子嗣的美将偿还我的账，宽恕我的老。’
Proving his beauty by succession thine！
并证明他的美出自你！
This were to be new made when thou art old，
这将使你在垂暮之年重生
And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.
使你渐冷的血液再度升温
Comment & Interpretation
The poet opens with another image: military image- time as besieging army-to persuade the young person to marry. The soldiers are digging trenches in the field outside the city to get ready for the besieging. The trenches correspond to the wrinkles on the forehead of the young man when he is old. The ornament of his youth, now attracting much attention, will become a ragged garment of little worth when he is old. He is not urged to throw away his beauty by devoting himself to self-pleasure, but to have children, thus satisfying the world, the Nature, which will keep an account of what he does with his life.
Shakespeare looks ahead to the time when the youth will be aged, and uses this as an argument to urge him to waste no time, and to have a children who will preserve his beauty. He uses several future tense to show the urgency and make haste the young man’s getting married and be getting children, such as “shall besiege”.
However, the way for his chidren to use his beauty did not be presented by Shakespeare. There is a possibility that his chidren would neglect his father or mother’s beauty and in turn destroy his own beauty. And we know that marriage is like a grave or disease in modern people’s universe. The poet is a little bit edgy and ideal in terms of marriage and procreation.
SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS Sonnet 2 Forty winters besiege thy brow
