[转载]疑难解答：And that unfair which fairly doth

And that unfair which fairly doth excel = And make ugly what now excels in beauty.

SONNET 5 (by William Shakespeare)

Those Hours, that with gentle work did frame

The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell,

Will play the tyrants to the very same

And that unfair which fairly doth excel:

For never-resting Time leads Summer on

To hideous Winter and confounds him there;

Sap check'd with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,

Beauty o'ersnow'd and bareness every where:

Then, were not summer's distillation left,

A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,

Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,

Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was.

    But flowers distill'd though they with winter meet,

    Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.

NOTES

1.unfair(v.t.): make ugly；fairly:in beauty.

And that unfair which fairly doth excel = And make ugly what now excels in beauty.

2. were not...left: if there were not left.

3. A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass:

The distillate would be kept in a glass vessel, a vial. See the next sonnet.

4.effect: product；were bereft:would be taken away.

5.Nor...nor: 此行省略了一个动词，原意是：There would be neither it (i.e. beauty's effcet) nor any remembrance of what it was.nor no:双重否定，仍为否定，这是伊丽莎白时代英惯用法。

6.leese:lose

SONNET 5 权威汉译：

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_a795440b0101i27j.html

（英语翻译交流网）