威廉.莎士比亚(1564--1616)欧洲文化复兴时期英国最伟大的剧作家和诗人。这部形成系列组诗的十四行诗集，从第一首到第一百二十六首，是写给或讲到一位美貌的贵族男青年的。诗人热烈地歌颂这位青年的美貌和诗人与他的友谊；第一百二十七首到第一百五十二首是写给或讲到一位黑(褐)肤女郎的，她是诗人的情人。最后两首及中间个别几首，与其他诗没有情节上的联系。
在这些诗里，诗人通过一系列事物的歌颂、咏叹和抨击，表达了他的进步的宇宙观、世界观、人生观和审美观。诗人通过对友谊和爱情的歌颂，提出了他所主张的生活最高准则：真、善、美，和这三者的结合。向世人宣称，他将永远歌颂真善美、永远歌颂这者的结合：
真、善、美，就是我全部的主题，
真、善、美，变化成不同的词章；
我的创造力就用在这种变化里，
三题合一，产生瑰丽的景象。

　

第一首

我们要美丽的生灵不断蕃息，
能这样，美的玫瑰才永不消亡，
既然成熟的东西都不免要谢世，
优美的子孙就应当来继承芬芳；
但是你跟你明亮的眼睛定了婚，
把自身当柴烧，烧出了眼睛的光彩，
这就在丰收的地方造成了饥馑，
你是在跟自己作对，教自己受害。
如今你是世界上鲜艳的珍品，
只有你能够替灿烂的春天开路，
你却在自己的花蕾里埋葬了自身，
温柔的怪物呵，用吝啬浪费了全部。
可怜这世界吧，世界应得的东西
别让你和坟墓吞吃到一无所遗！
　

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decrease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou,contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe,to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And,tender churl,mak'st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world,or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due,by the grave and thee
----------------------------------------------------

第二首

四十个冬天将围攻你的额角，
将在你美的田地里挖浅沟深渠，
你青春的锦袍，如今教多少人倾倒，
将变成一堆破烂，值一片空虚。
那时侯有人会问：“你的美质------
你少年时代的宝贝，如今在何方？”
回答是：在你那深陷的眼睛里，
只有贪欲的耻辱，浪费的赞赏。
要是你回答说：“我这美丽的小孩
将会完成我，我老了可 以交帐----”
从而让后代把美继承下来，
那你就活用了美，该大受颂扬！
你老了，你的美应当恢复青春，
你的血一度冷了，该再度沸腾。
　

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
and dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery,so gazed on now,
Will be a tolltered weed of small worth held:
Then being asked where all thy beauty lies--
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days------
To say within thine own deep-sunken eyes
Were an all -eating shame and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,
If thou couldst answer,"This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count and make my old excuse"--
Proving his beauty by succession thine.
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.
----------------------------------------------------

第三首
照照镜子去，把脸儿看个清楚，
是时候了，这脸儿该找个替身；
如果你现在不给它修造新居，
你就是欺世，不让人家做母亲。
有那么美的女人么，她那还没人
耕过的处女地会拒绝你来耕耘？
有那么傻的汉子么，他愿意做个坟
来埋葬对自己的爱，不要子孙？
你是你母亲的镜子，她在你身上
唤回了自己可爱的青春四月天：
那么不管皱纹，通过你老年的窗，
你也将能看到你现在的黄金流年。
要是你活着，不愿意被人记牢，
就独个儿死吧，教美影与你同消。

　

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,
Now is the time that face should form another,
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world,unbless some mother,
For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother's glass,and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles,this thy golden time.
But if thou live rememb'red not to be,
Die single and thine image dies with thee.
----------------------------------------------------

第五首
一刻刻时辰，先用温柔的工程
造成了凝盼的美目，教众人注目，
过后，会对这同一慧眼施暴政，
使美的不再美，只让它一度杰出；
永不歇脚的时间把春天带到了
可怕的冬天，就随手把他倾覆；
青枝绿叶在冰霜下萎黄枯槁了，
美披上白雪，到处是一片荒芜。
那么，要是没留下夏天的花精，
那关在玻璃墙中的液体囚人，
美的果实就得连同美一齐扔，
没有美，也不能纪念美的灵魂。
花儿提出了香精，那就到冬天，
也不过丢外衣；本质可还是新鲜。

　

Those hours that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell
Will play the tyrants to the very same
And that unfair which fairly doth excel:
For never-resting time leads summer on
To hideous winter and confounds him there,
Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o'ersnowed and bareness everywhere.
Then were not summer's distillation left
A liquid pris'ner pent in walls of glass,
Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,
Nor it nor no remembrance what it was.
But flow'rs distilled,though they with winter meet,
leese but their show,their substance still lives sweet.

第六首
你还没提炼出香精，那你就别让
严冬的粗手来抹掉你脸上的盛夏
你教玉瓶生香吧；用美的宝藏
使福地生光吧，趁它还没有自杀。
取这种重利并不是犯禁放高利贷，
它能够教愿意还债的人们高兴；
这正是要你生出另一个你来，
或高兴十倍，要是你一个生十人；
你十个儿女描画你十幅肖像，
你就要比你独个儿添十倍欢乐：
你将来去世时，死伸能把你怎样，
既然在后代身上你永远存活？
别刚愎自用，你太美丽了，不应该
让死神掳去教蛆虫做你的后代。

　

Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
In thee thy summer ere thou be distilled:
Make sweet some vial;treasure thou some place
With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed.
That use is not forbidden usury
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
That's for thyself to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier be it ten for one.
Ten times thyself were happier than thou art.
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity?
Be not self-willed,for thou art much too fair,
To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.
　

第八首
你是音乐，为甚么悲哀地听音乐？
甜蜜不忌甜蜜，欢笑爱欢笑。
你不愉快地接受，又何以爱悦？
或者，你就高兴地接受苦恼？
假如几种入调的声音合起来
成了真和谐，教你听了不乐，
那它只是美妙地责备你不该
守独身而把你应守的本分推脱。
听一根弦，另一根的好丈夫，听，
一根拨响了一根应，琴音谐和；
正如父亲、儿子和快乐的母亲，
合成一体，唱一支动人的歌：
他们那没词儿的歌，都异口同声，
对你唱：“你独身将要一无所成。”

　

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldest bear.
Mark how one string,sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire, and child,and happy mother,
Who all in one,one pleasing note do sing;
Whose speechless song,being many,seeming one,
Sings this to thee:"Thou single wilt prove none."
　

第九首

是为了怕教寡妇的眼睛哭湿，
你才在独身生活中消耗你自己？
啊！假如你不留下子孙就去世，
世界将为你哭泣，像丧偶的妻：
世界将做你的未亡人，哭不完，
说你没有把自己的形影留下来，
而一切个人的寡妇却只要看见
孩子的眼睛就记住亡夫的神态。
看，浪子在世间挥霍的财产
只换了位置，仍能为世人享用；
而美的消费在世间可总有个完，
守着不用，就毁在本人的手中。
对自己会作这么可耻的谋害，
这种心胸不可能对别人有爱。

　

Is it for fear to wet a window's eye
That thou consum'st thyself in single life?
Ah,if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wait 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
Shifte 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 murd'rous shame commits.
　

第十二首
我，计算着时钟算出的时辰，
看到阴黑夜吞掉伟丽的白日；
看到紫罗兰 失去了鲜艳的青春，
貂黑的卷发都成了雪白的银丝；
看到昔日用繁枝密叶为牧人
遮阴的高树只剩了几根秃柱子，
夏季的葱绿都扎做一捆捆收成，
载在柩车上，带着一缕缕白胡子-----
于是，我开始考虑到你的美丽，
想你也必定要走进时间的荒夜，
芬芳与娇妍总是要放弃自己，
见别人快长，自己却快快凋谢；
没人敌的过时间的镰刀呵，除非
生儿女，你死后留子孙跟他作对 。

When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silvered o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard;
Then of thy beauty do I question make
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow,
And nothing'gainst time's scythe can make defence
Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence.

第一四首

我的判断并不是来自星象中；
不过我想我自有占星的学说，
可是我不用它来卜命运的吉凶，
卜疫疠、灾荒或者季候的性格；
我也不会给一刻刻时光掐算，
因为我没有从天上得到过启示，
指不出每分钟前途的风雨雷电，
道不出帝王将相的时运趋势：
但是我从你眼睛里引出知识，
从这不变的恒星中学到这学问，
说是美与真能够共同繁滋，
只要你能够转入永久的仓廪；
如若不然，我能够这样预言你：
你的末日，就是真与美的死期。

Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck,
And yet methinks I have astronomy;
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths,or seasons'quality;
Nor can I fotune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain,and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well,
By oft predict that I in heaven find.
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldest convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.

第一八首

我是否能把你比作夏季的一天？
你可是更加可爱，更加温婉；
狂风会吹落五月的娇花嫩瓣，
夏季出租的日期又未免太短：
有时候苍天的巨眼照得太灼热，
他金光闪耀的圣颜也会被遮暗；
每一样美呀，总会失去美而凋落，
被时机或者自然的代谢所摧残；
但是但是你永久的夏天决不会凋枯，
你永远不会丧失你美的形象；
死神跨不着你在他影子里踯躅，
你将在不朽的诗中与时间同长。
只要人类在呼吸，眼睛看得见，
我这诗就活着，使你的生命绵延。

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the daring buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this,and this gives life to thee.