If there be nothing new, but that which is

Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,

Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss

The second burden of a former child!

O, that record could with a backward look,

Even of five hundred courses of the sun,

Show me your image in some antique book,

Since mind at first in character was done!

That I might see what the old world could say

To this composed wonder of your frame;

Whether we are mended, or whether better they,

Or whether revolution be the same.

O, sure I am, the wits of former days

To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

如果天下無新事，現在的種種

從前都有過，我們的頭腦多上當，

當它苦心要創造，卻懷孕成功

一個前代有過的嬰孩的重擔！

哦，但愿歷史能用回溯的眼光

（縱使太陽已經運行了五百周），

在古書里對我顯示你的肖像，

自從心靈第一次寫成了句讀！--

讓我曉得古人曾經怎樣說法，

關于你那雍容的體態的神奇；

是我們高明，還是他們優越，

或者所謂演變其實并無二致。

　　哦，我敢肯定，不少才子在前代

　　曾經贊揚過遠不如你的題材。