How_Soon_Hath_Time-John_Milton.mp3

How soon Hath Time - John Milton
         
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late springs no bud or blossom shew'th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arrived so near,
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven,
All is, if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye.
                  
교활한 청춘의 도둑, 시간은 얼마나 빨리도
날개를 타고서 내 스물 세 해를 몰래 빼앗아 갔는가!
나의 분주한 날들은 쏜살같이 날아가건만
그러나, 나의 늦은 봄에는 꽃도 봉오리도 없구나.
아마도 내 외모가 진실을 속이고 있는 것이리라.
어른에 가까운 모습으로 되어 있으나
어떤 이들은 나이에 비해 더 많이 갖춘
내면의 원숙함이 내게는 없구나...
그러나 하늘의 뜻과 시간이 나를 이끄는 데에 따라,
그것이 많고 적거나 이르고 늦든 간에
엄격한 척도에서 보면 그것은 보잘 것 없든 고귀한 것이든 간에
그 똑 같은 몫에는 한결 같은 것...
해서, 만일 원숙함의 은총을 내가 받고 있다해도
하느님이 보시기에는 그 모두가 여전히 똑같으리라.

-The first couplet tells us that the young man has just celebrated his 24th birthday.
The exclamation point shows his excitement with growing older. He calls the present
his "wasting days" in the third line that "fly on with full career". This means that
although the present might be wasteful, there is an ultimate goal that is to be
reached in the future, called adulthood. In line four, Milton calls the young man's
slow physical maturation his "late spring". He points out that he has not grown to
be a man because "no bud or blossom shew'th". "Bud", in my oppinion, refers to
facial hair and "blossom" to blossoming pecks or muscles.