When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats. Pierre de Ronsard's "To Hélène "

When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats ，這首詩，1971年我們的【大一英文】課本有選入。當時，竟然沒將全詩翻譯，只選幾行當情詩。 (2016.2.22)
記得聽說過或讀過，這首詩受到 P. de Ronsard (龍沙)的"等你老態龍鍾"的影響。
今天(2016.3.18) 讀施穎洲先生的譯文，的確如此：

等你老態龍鍾，夜晚在燭影裏，
坐在爐火旁邊，抽絲紡線，吟詠
我的詩篇，沉思之間，你會說明：
"龍沙歌頌過我，當時我還美麗。"
......
你將成為爐邊一個傴僂老婦，
追惜我的多情，痛悔你的傲慢，
生活吧，信我的話，別等待明天，
趁今天將生命的玫瑰花折取。

張華兄找出英譯，他說的可能是嫌"老態龍鍾"是熟語，我的看法類似，可能直接譯就可。

"When you are very old" 一句，竟發現很難用中文好好表達。

Pierre de Ronsard's "To Hélène "

When you are very old, by candle’s flame,

Spinning beside the fire, at the end of day,

Singing my verse, admiring, you will say:

“When I was fair, Ronsard’s muse I become."

Your servant then, some weary old beldame-

Whoever she may be- nodding away,

Hearing “Ronsard.” Will shake off sleep, and pray

Your name will be blessed, to live in deathless fame.

Buried, I shall a fleshless phantom be,

Hovering by the shadowed myrtle tree;

You, by the hearth, a pining crone, bent low,

Whose pride once scorned my love, much to you sorrow.

Heed me, live for today, wait not the morrow:

Gather life’s roses while still fresh they grow.

When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats : The Poetry ...

www.poetryfoundation.org › Poems & Poets

When you are old and grey and full of sleep, / And nodding by the fire, take down this book, / And slowly read, and ... But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,.