当你衰老时
（又名：当你老了）
——龙萨
When You Are 0ld
——Pierre De Ronsard 英译版
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
will 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
mourning my love and all your proud disdain
And since what comes to-morrow who can say?
Live
pluck the roses of the world to-day.
当你老了
暮色里将蜡烛点燃
在炉火边纺着毛衣
低声抱怨道：
“当我年轻美貌时，龙萨曾写诗赞美我”
你那些矮凳上劳累得昏然欲睡的女仆们”
听到这声音
无一不被惊醒
惊羡你曾有幸
受到他的赞美
在这样的赞美里得到永恒
那时我或许已是地下消瘦的鬼魂
挣脱了苦痛
静静地在桃树的树阴下安眠
而你
也已是炉火旁一个佝偻的老妇
懊悔昔日竟骄傲地藐视我的爱谁能说准明天会是什么光景
生活着
趁今朝还在
赶紧去采摘那玫瑰
很多人看到《当你老了》这一首诗的时候，第一反应应是叶芝版的《当你老了》。
实际上，龙萨生活的年份比叶芝早几百年，叶芝版《当你老了》这首诗的灵感，正是来源龙萨。
当你老了――威廉·巴特勒·叶芝
When you are old --- William Butler Yeats
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
当你年老时
当你年老，鬓斑，睡意昏沉，
在炉旁打盹时，取下这本书，
慢慢诵读，梦忆从前你双眸
神色柔和，眼波中倒影深深；
多少人爱你风韵妩媚的时光，
爱你的美丽出自假意或真情，
但唯有一人爱你灵魂的至诚，
爱你渐衰的脸上愁苦的风霜；
弯下身子，在炽红的壁炉边，
忧伤地低诉，爱神如何逃走，
在头顶上的群山巅漫步闲游，
把他的面孔隐没在繁星中间。
