Had I the heavens embroidered cloths, 假如我有天國的錦緞,
Enwrought with golden and silver light, 繡滿金光和銀光,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light,
那用夜和光和微光織就的藍和灰和黑色的錦緞
I would spread the cloths under your feet: 我將把它們鋪在你腳下:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; 但我很窮,只有夢;
I have spread my dreams under your feet; 我把我的夢鋪在你腳下;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
輕輕踩啊,因為你踩的是我的夢。
這是葉慈(W. B. Yeats, 1865-1939)有名的情詩,文中充滿著對情人難以言喻的期待與盼望。但,如同孔子以「思無邪」對「詩三百」「一言以蔽之」的解讀一樣,這首情詩,尤其是最末一句,被廣泛的運用在團體與個人、支配者和被支配者間的關係。(以上是我對Yeats這首詩的看法。)