《健康全书Tacuinum Sanitatis》(1474年)
英国诗人约翰·唐恩(John Donne, 1572-1631)的一首名诗中提到了曼德拉草,引用一段原文。
(译者阮一峰,译自2006年8月18日),原帖地址为“《去吧,去抓住一颗流星》(GO, and catch a falling star)”。
GO and catch a falling star,(去吧,去抓一颗流星,)
Get with child a mandrake root,(去让曼德草的根长成一个婴儿,)
Tell me where all past years are,(告诉我,哪里可以找回过去的年华,)
Or who cleft the devil's foot,(谁能劈开魔鬼的脚趾,)
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,(教教我,去听美人鱼的歌声,)
Or to keep off envy's stinging,(去避开妒忌者的诽谤,)
And find(找到那,)
What wind Serves to advance an honest mind.(可以让老实人提高地位的风。)
If thou be'st born to strange sights,(如果你渴望看到奇特的景色,)
Things invisible to see,(看到别人没有见过的东西,)
Ride ten thousand days and nights,(那么你不妨骑马出游,一万个日夜,)
Till age snow white hairs on thee,(直到双鬓染霜曼德拉草,)
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,(当你归来之时,你会对我讲起,)
All strange wonders that befell thee,(你见到的所有奇观,)
And swear,然后发誓,
No where Lives a woman true and fair.(这世上没有,美丽而忠贞的女子。)
If thou find'st one, let me know,(如果你能找到一个这样的女子,请告诉我,)
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;(那样的旅程一定很美好;)
Yet do not, I would not go,(可惜不会有那样的旅程,我也不会离开这里,)
Though at next door we might meet,(也许我的隔壁就住着一个这样的女子,)
Though she were true, when you met her,(也许你遇到她的时候,她美丽而且忠贞,)
And last, till you write your letter,(一直到你离家给她写信为止,她都是如此,)
Yet she(但是她曼德拉草,)
Will be False, ere I come, to two, or three.(不等我归家,准已哄骗了二三个男人。)