My mistress’ eyes, My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red.
虚拟语气
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d1, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight, than in the breath that from my mistress reeks2.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go, my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love is as rare as any she3 belied4 with false compare.
Government claims that there is no poverty are belied5 by the number of homeless people on the streets.
And yet I think my love as rare as any woman who has been misrepresented by ridiculous comparisons.
《第十二夜》 (Twelfth Night): “If music be the food of love, play on.” （如果音乐[真的]是爱情之粮，那就继续演奏吧。）—— 这里不是确定音乐就是粮食，而是一个充满浪漫色彩的假设起点。
《哈姆雷特》 (Hamlet): “If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now.” （如果它[死亡]就在现在，那它就不会在未来……）—— 这里使用 be 来探讨命运的不确定性。
Footnotes
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In this quote, “damask’d” means patterned or streaked red and white. Some scholars speculate Shakespeare is making an allusion in this line to the War of the Roses, with the white and red rose being symbols of the houses of York and Lancaster. ↩
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than in the breath that comes out of (reeks from) my mistress. ↩
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woman ↩
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misrepresented. ↩
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to show that sth cannot be true or correct ↩