O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give.
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odor, which doth in it live.
The canker blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses.
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwooed, and unrespected fade;
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths, are sweetest odors made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall vade, by verse distills your truth.
啊,如果有真作為美的裝飾,
那么,美一定顯得更具光輝!
玫瑰是美的,但我們還覺得
更美的是蘊含其中的香味。
若論顏色,那無香的野薔薇
與芬芳的玫瑰花并無二致,
當夏日的暖風吹開了蓓蕾,
它也枝頭高掛,也玩得肆意;
但外表的美已是它的全部,
它活著,無人問津,無人愛憐,
直至死滅。但玫瑰不是如此:
它即便死了,還提煉出香精。
你也如此,我可愛的美少年:
當美消亡,你的真由詩提煉。