il Giardino Romantico

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act I, Scene ii, Lines 226~245

Helena: How happy some o'er other some can be!
            Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
            But what of that?  Demetrius thinks no so;
            He will not know what all but he do know;
            And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
            So I admiring of his qualities.
            Things base and vile, holding no quality,
            Love can transpose to form and dignity.
            Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;
            And therefore is wing'd cupid painted blind.
            Nor hath love's mind of any judgement taste;
            Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste;
            And therefore is Love said to be a chld,
            Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd.
            As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
            So the boy Love is purjur'd every where;
            For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne;
            He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
            And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
            So he dissolv'd, and show'rs of oath did melt.
            I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight;
            Then to the wood will he tomorrow night
            Pursue her; and for this intelligence
            If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.
            But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
            To have his sight thither and back again.

Ah, love!  Is it not the most perplexing thing in the world?  When one thinks of 'love', quite often, Shakespeare's sonnets would come to mind.  Yet in many of his romantic comedies, and of course the best-known 'Romeo and Juliet', many ideas of love are embedded within the characters' speech.  This is one of the many speeches where the character speaks of their own notion of love.  In the romantic sense, Helena is yet another brave and courageous heroine, who is struggling between jealousy and her devoted love to Demetrius.  Fortunately for her, the story ends in a happily-ever kind of way.  Perhaps, we all need a little love potion sometimes, in order to set things right.  Nonetheless, Shakespeare's got at least two things right: 'Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind' and 'The course of true love never did run smooth' ¹.

愛情啊！這可是世界上最難理解的事物。當你想到『愛情』，是否會想到莎翁的十四行詩呢？其實在許多浪漫喜劇裡，或是大家最熟悉的『羅密歐與朱麗葉』悲劇中莎翁也常常探討各式各樣的愛情觀。這也是其中之一。以浪漫的角度來看，其實Helena也是個勇敢的女角色。他在忌妒以及對Demetrius的愛情之間掙扎著。幸好此劇的結尾對是有利的。或許我們在現實世界中有時也需要一些魔法來幫助我們呢。總之，莎翁說對了至少兩句話：『愛不用眼而用的是心』和『真愛之路走地永遠都是要歷盡千辛萬苦』¹。

Note: 1. Also from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
註：1. 同樣出自於『仲夏夜之夢』