英文
LIX
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 burthen 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;
Wh'r we are mended, or wh'r better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
O, sure I am the wits of former days,
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
中文
59
如果世上的万物一如既往，
别无新意，那我们已经上当：
我们用尽心思，本想有所创，
生下的婴儿早已活在世上！
哟，但愿这历史能转身回望，
追溯太阳五百年前的轨迹，
并在古籍中显示你的形象，
说说思想如何见于文字，
从而让我知道：古代的人们
如何描述你——这世界的奇观：
他们谁更好，今人还是古人？
世界是革新，还是一味循环？
哟，我断言，古代的英才贤士
赞美过的人，没一个比得上你。
