Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?
O! know sweet love I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
翻译：
为什么我的诗，如此缺乏新意，
离开急剧变化的时代，那么远？
为什么我不能，发现新的方法，
与时俱进、旁征博引加以变幻？
为何始终一个题材，那么雷同，
只保持，发掘某株野草的视线；
几乎每句诗，都提及我的名字，
并透露，自己的身世以及渊源？
挚友你知道吗？我总是描写你！
和抒爱一样，用我擅长的杜撰；
所以我的新作，全都使用旧辞，
米饭已冷，只是重新再炒一遍。
就如太阳每天循例，升落不变；
我老爱叨叨那些，陈年的絮言。
推荐理由：这首十四行情诗精选（七十六）是莎士比亚笔下的Sonnet76《困惑》，如果你是莎翁的忠实读者怎能错过呢？