叶芝与当你老了

石工

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如果楼主知道叶芝读过下面这首诗，会不会心情好一点？
' r2 l! Y% E" M+ J* @一个天才横空出世，脚下不知道有多少个被当做阶梯的过气天才。龙萨的诗符合文艺复兴的意气风发，现在读来很难代入；叶芝的诗更适合女权意识开始觉醒和高涨的维多利亚时代，现在读来也不过时。
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Sonnet to Helen
  e* f' f& P( r  B8 i, p% _# pBy Pierre de Ronsard (mid 16th cent)
# D: |  i8 g0 W( m1 {" eTranslated by A.Z. Foreman

When you are old, at evening candle-lit,
  beside the fire bending to your wool,
read out my verse and murmur "Ronsard writ
  this praise for me when I was beautiful."
And not a maid but at the sound of it,
  though nodding at the stitch on broidered stool,
5 r+ H  ?! U9 F1 }+ w9 Ywill start awake, and bless love's benefit,
  whose long fidelities bring Time to school.
I shall be thin and ghost beneath the earth,
  by myrtle-shade in quiet after pain,
but you, a crone will crouch beside the hearth,
- V  [  j# }2 l$ A  mourning my love and all your proud disdain.
And what comes to-morrow who can say?
Live, pluck the roses of the world to-day.
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% L/ ^6 v* t- L+ G( V, }( u 原作者龙萨Ronsard是法国首位诗歌王子（相当于英国的桂冠诗人），这首诗写于1552年，明世宗嘉靖三十一年，比光绪年间出道的叶芝早了三百多年。这是他的成名作，叶芝读的应该是法语版，这里就不拿出来了。两首诗的对比，是英语文学课上的一个好题目。网上有位老师布置了这个作业（链接在此），回答很踊跃，也很有启发。最近看了看高考题，要能这么出题，那才是进步。