《每当我害怕》为济慈所作的一首诗歌。这是济慈的第一首伊丽莎白体14行诗,即莎士比亚体,五音步抑扬格,韵式ABAB CDCD EFEF GG(起承转合),创作于1818年,济慈当时只有23岁。他患肺结核的弟弟在1819年去世,济慈因为日夜照看弟弟,也染上了结核病,年仅26岁,这位才华横溢的浪漫主义诗人便与世长辞了。据称,济慈写这首诗时,已经知道自己患有肺病。
When I Have Fears
每当我害怕
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love; —then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
每当我害怕生命或许就要止息,
我的笔来不及苦集盈溢的思绪,
或把文字变为高高堆起的书籍,
像饱贮的谷仓蓄满成熟的谷米;
每当我看见那缀满繁星的夜景,
巨大星云画出非凡的传奇幻像,
想到即使运气帮忙,对我垂青,
生前或许也无法追摹这些云影;
每当我感到那瞬间即逝的美颜,
也许从今以后再也不可能看见,
更无法享受轻松爱情魔力若仙
——于是,在广袤世界的崖岸,
我形孤影单地伫立,细细思量,
直到爱与声名沉入乌有的穹苍。