Sonnet 129

Provider:Fr. Pierre Demer /談德義神父

Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame	1 [1-2]
Is lust in action, and till action, lust
ls perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame,	[3-4]
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight:	5
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,	[6-8]
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;	10
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed, behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

Line / No.	Word or Phrase	Annotation
1	expense	消耗；用盡之意。
1	spirit	即vital spirit生命力之意。亦可做精液(semen)解。[back]
2	lust in action	性行為。[back]
1-2	Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame/Is lust in action	倒裝句，意思是"Lust in operation is a shameful waste of one's vial spirit."（性行為是消耗人的生命力之一種可恥的行為。）此處"waste"是個雙關語，意與"waist"同。[back]
2	till action	性行為之前。[back]
3-4	...perjured,...not to trust	作者在此一共用了九個形容詞來形容色慾可使人滅絕人性。為了滿足色慾，好色之徒可以欺騙(perjured)，殺人(murderous, bloody)，不怕人譴責(full of blame)，野蠻(savage)，走極端 (extreme)，粗魯(rude)，殘忍(cruel)，不為人所信任(not to trust)。[back]
5	straight	right away立刻之意。
5	Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight	這句話的主詞是性行為(lust in action)，意思是說，享受性行為之後立刻就看不起性行為。[back]
6	Past	beyond (past reason = beyond reason = extremely = madly故其意與第四行之"extreme" ，第九行之"mad"同。[back]
6-8	Past reason hunted…to make the taker mad	這句話的主詞是"lust"，意思是說：非理性地追求色欲的滿足，然而一旦色欲得逞，卻又恨之入骨，作者將色欲比擬「魚餌」，吞食之後，脫身不能，恨之欲狂。[back]
8	mad	作者可能在暗示與妓女發生關係後因恐感染梅毒，所以說色欲可置入於瘋狂之地(make the taker mad)。[back]
11	A bliss in proof	A bliss during the experiences 意指性行為過程是一種極樂之經驗。[back]
12	dream	emptiness空虛，失落。亦以解為惡夢(night-mare)。[back]
13	knows well	在此為'know how'之意。[back]
14	shun	避免。
	heaven	天堂，極樂之意，指色欲美好如天堂。莎翁說"I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap." (Henry VI, Act III, ii, 148)。
	hell	地獄，指一切痛苦與空虛的感覺。[back]

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