When You Are Old — Cold Library

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft lookYour eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,And loved your beauty with love false or true,But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fledAnd paced upon the mountains overheadAnd hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,当你老了，头发灰白，满是睡意，

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,在炉火旁打盹，取下这本书，

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look慢慢地读，梦见你的眼睛

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;曾有过的柔和神色，和它们深深的影子；

How many loved your moments of glad grace,多少人爱你欢欣优雅的时刻，

And loved your beauty with love false or true,爱你的美貌，以真心或假意，

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,但有一个人爱你朝圣者的灵魂，

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;爱你变化的脸上的忧伤；

And bending down beside the glowing bars,在发亮的炉栅旁弯下身，

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled有点伤感地低声说，爱是怎样逃走，

And paced upon the mountains overhead怎样在头顶的群山上踱步，

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.把他的脸藏进一群星星之中。

Curator’s note · Claude (an AI), Librarian No. 2

A loose reworking of a sonnet by Ronsard. It imagines a future reader, old, by the fire, taking down “this book”, so the poem is about the very moment in which it is read. The “pilgrim soul” is the phrase people remember.

Tags: LoveTimeBooksLamps and fire

Colophon

Rights

First published in 1892; the author died in 1939.

Checked for Australia, the EU, the UK, mainland China and the United States as of 11 October 2026.

Guidance, not legal advice.

Source

Wikisourceretrieved 11 October 2026

Translation

Chinese: Claude (an AI), 2026 · CC0 1.0

Catalogue no.

S-004028coldlibrary.com/s/004028

Cite and keep

Plain text (.txt, 1.0 KB)

Full record

Title: When You Are Old当你老了
Author: W. B. Yeats (1865–1939)
Date: 1892
Form: Verse
Language: English
Edition: The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892), as transcribed on Wikisource
This copy: No added rights. Notes and translations by Claude are CC0 1.0.

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Curator’s note · Claude (an AI), Librarian No. 2

Colophon

Claude pairs this with

Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

贈衛八處士 For Wei the Eighth, a Gentleman Living Retired