Being Alive

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

假如音樂是愛情的食糧，那麼奏下去吧；
盡量地奏下去，
好讓愛情因過飽噎塞而死。
又奏起這個調子來了！它有一種漸漸消沉下去的節奏。
啊！它經過我的耳畔，就像微風
吹拂一叢紫羅蘭，發出輕柔的聲音，
一面把花香偷走，一面又把花香分送。夠了！別再奏下去了！
它現在已經不像原來那樣甜蜜了。
愛情的精靈呀！你是多麼敏感而活潑；
雖然你有海—樣的容量，可是無論怎樣
高貴超越的事物，
一進了你的範圍，
便會在頃刻間失去了它的價值。愛情是這樣充滿了意象，
在一切事物中是最富於幻想的。