遠路不須愁日暮。

甚麼事都教我分心不專詩藝：

從前為伊人的容顏，等而下之

就以為白痴治下的家國需要我；

現在再也沒有甚麼更須舉手之勞了

除了這嫻習的工作。年輕時

我從未認真注文聽完一首歌

除非吟唱者採取的曲調風格

力足以令人相信他樓上有一把利劍；

而現在但願，若是能照我初衷，

比一尾魚更冷，更啞，更聾。

All things can tempt me from this craft of verse：

One time it was a woman’s face, or worse－

The seeming needs of my fool-driven land；

Now nothing but comes readier to the hand

Than this accustomed toil. When I was young,

I had not given a penny for a song

Did not the poet sing it with such airs

That one believed he had a sword upstairs；

Yet would be now, could I but have my wish,

Colder and dumber and deafer than a fish.

【W.B. Yeats  葉慈】