Sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley: Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

(1818)

雪萊著十四行詩：歐西曼達斯

我遇見一位從古國歸來的旅客﹐

他說：一雙龐大而沒有身軀的石腿

站立在沙漠中。石腿旁､沙堆裡，

半埋著一個破碎的臉龐，有皺著的眉､

扭曲的唇､冷峻輕蔑的威儀，

証明雕匠充份捕捉了人物的情感﹐

銘刻在無生命的石頭上，

但雕者的手與被雕者的心卻不再留存。

雕座上的大字赫然在目：

「我是歐西曼達斯，萬王之王；

你這有能者﹐看我這蓋世功業，只能絕望！」

除此外空蕩蕩。環繞這巨大的

殘骸四周，一望無際，

只有孤寂平坦的黃沙﹐伸向天邊。

［孔祥烱修譯﹐2007年10月］