Шекспир. Сонет 60. Победа стиха над временем

Как волны к гальке берега стремятся,
так и минуты к своему концу,
Изменчивостью места состязаться,
как форварды, что ревностны к труду.
Рождение, из Света исходя,
Ко зрелости с короною ползёт,
Витки в затменьях к славе победя,
Все Время забирает в свой черед.
Оно, как флора, молодость растит,
и делит переносицу чертой,
И редкости сумеет воскормить,
Но все затем ссечет Своей Косой.
Но стих сумеет Время победить,
Раз смог назло ему Вас восхвалить.

SONNET 60
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
 So do our minutes hasten to their end;
 Each changing place with that which goes before,
 In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
 Nativity, once in the main of light,
 Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
 Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
 And Time, that gave, doth now his gift confound.
 Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
 And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
 Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
 And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.
    And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
    Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

NOTES

 LX. This Sonnet is in connection with that next before. It is also under the influence of the melancholy cast of thought not perhaps unnaturally produced by the theory of an unvarying and inexorable succession, a revolution ever the same. The particulars which make up human life succeed one another in unvarying order and with unresting onward movement, from birth to maturity, and from maturity to decay and dissolution. But the poet anticipates greater durability for his verse, and consequently for the fame of his friend. Lix. and lx. probably constitute a separate group.

 5. The main of light. The expanse of light; the world conceived as though a wide ocean enlightened by the rays of the sun.

 6. Crawls to maturity. Meaning, probably, not merely that the progress is slow, but that the condition of mankind is abject. Cf. Hamlet, Act iii. sc. i, lines 129-131, "What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?"


 7. Crooked eclipses. Adverse circumstances and conditions, which are "crooked," as being hostile to onward progress, changing its course, or arresting it.

 8. Doth now his gift confound. Spoil and render worthless his gift. Cf. v. 6.

 9. Doth transfix the flourish set on youth. Doth kill and destroy youthful beauty.

 11. Feeds on, &c. Feeds on whatever is pre-eminently excellent. Nature's truth. That which is naturally and genuinely beautiful and excellent, as opposed to what is meretricious and artificial.