To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
生存還是毀滅，這是一個值得考慮的問題;
默然忍受命運的暴虐的毒箭，或是挺身反抗人世的無涯的苦難，
通過鬥爭把它們掃清，這兩種行為，哪一種更高貴?
死了;睡著了;什麼都完了;
要是在這一種睡眠之中，我們心頭的創痛，
以及其他無數血肉之軀所不能避免的打擊，都可以從此消失，
那正是我們求之不得的結局。
死了;睡著了;睡著了也許還會做夢;
嗯，阻礙就在這兒：
因為當我們擺脫了這一具朽腐的皮囊以後，
在那死的睡眠裡，究竟將要做些什麼夢，那不能不使我們躊躇顧慮。
人們甘心久困於患難之中，也就是為了這個緣故;
誰願意忍受人世的鞭撻和譏嘲、壓迫者的凌辱、
傲慢者的冷眼、被輕蔑的愛情的慘痛、法律的遷延、
官吏的橫暴和費盡辛勤所換來的小人的鄙視，
要是他只要用一柄小小的刀子，就可以清算他自己的一生?
誰願意負著這樣的重擔，
在煩勞的生命的壓迫下呻吟流汗，倘不是因為懼怕不可知的死後，
懼怕那從來不曾有一個旅人回來過的神祕之國，
是它迷惑了我們的意志，使我們寧願忍受目前的磨折，
不敢向我們所不知道的痛苦飛去?
這樣，重重的顧慮使我們全變成了懦夫，
決心的赤熱的光彩，被審慎的思維蓋上了一層灰色，
偉大的事業在這一種考慮之下，也會逆流而退，
失去了行動的意義。