The river of life

　　the more we live, more brief appear

　　our life's succeeding stages;

　　a day to childhood seems a year,

　　and years like passing ages.

　　生命之川

　　人生越老，歲月越短，

　　生命的歷程似在飛換;

　　兒時的一天如同一載，

　　一載如同幾個朝代。

　　the gladsome current of our youth,

　　ere passion yet disorders,

　　steals lingering like a river smooth,

　　along its grassy borders.

　　青春的熱情尚未衰退，

　　愉悅的流泉但覺遲遲，

　　有如一道草原中的綠溪，

　　靜悄悄的蜿蜒著流瀉。

　　but as the care-worn cheets grow wan,

　　and sorrow's shafts fly thicker,

　　ye stars, that measure life to man,

　　why seem your courses quicker?

　　但待頰上的紅霞退盡，

　　憂愁的征箭越飛越頻，

　　星星呦星星，你們大小司命，

　　你們的運行為何越來越迅?

　　when joys have lost their bloom and breath

　　and life itself is vapid,

　　why, as we reach the falls of death,

　　feel we its tide more rapid?

　　當快感失去了花時和吸引，

　　生命本身有如一個空瓶，

　　當我快要臨到死境，

　　為什么退潮更加猛進?

　　it may be strange-yet who would change

　　time's coures to slower speeding,

　　when one by one our friends have gone

　　and left our bosoms bleeding?

　　怪誕呀，可能是怪誕——

　　誰要不想把日程放慢，

　　友人的謝世接二連三，

　　胸中的傷痛如荼如炭。

　　heaven gives our years of fading strength

　　indemnifying fleetness;

　　and those of youth,a seeming length,

　　proportion'd their sweetness.

　　是天，使我們日漸衰竭的暮年

　　得到迅速消失的補償，

　　是天，使青年時代的快樂，

　　得到相應的貌似延長。