| 中古英语原文 | 现代英语直译[1] |
|---|
| Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote | When [that] April with his showers sweet |
| The droȝte of March hath perced to the roote | The drought of March has pierced to the root |
| And bathed every veyne in swich licour, | And bathed every vein in such liquor, |
| Of which vertu engendred is the flour; | Of which virtue engendered is the flower; |
| Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth | WhenZephyrus eeked with his sweet breath |
| Inspired hath in every holt and heeth | Inspired has in every holt and heath, |
| The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne | The tender crops; and the young sun |
| Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, | Has inthe Ram his half-course run, |
| And smale foweles maken melodye, | And small fowls make melody, |
| That slepen al the nyght with open ye | That sleep all the night with open eye |
| (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); | (So pricks them Nature in their courages); |
| Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages | Then folk long to go on pilgrimages |
| And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes | Andpalmers [for] to seek strangestrands |
| To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; | To far-offhallows, couth in sundry lands; |
| And specially from every shires ende | And, especially, from every shire's end |
| Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, | Of England, to Canterbury they went, |
| The hooly blisful martir for to seke | Theholy blissful martyr [for] to seek, |
| That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke. | That them has helped, when [that] they were sick. |
