我去听音乐会、参加聚会、参加舞会——这些有什么好处呢?我独自靠墙而坐，努力让自己看起来轻松自在。他们在她的祭坛前烧我应得的香;那是因为我17岁而她49岁。我无法抑制我少女般的红晕，我的肤色忽来忽去;我涨红了指尖，有时涨红了鼻子。但她在该白的地方是白的，在该红的地方是红的。十七岁脸红，四十九岁脸红。我希望我有她坚忍的脸皮;我希望我能唱各种有趣的小歌，不太合适。 I'm very gauche and very shy, Her jokes aren't in my line; And, worst of all, I'm seventeen While She is forty-nine. The young men come, the young men go Each pink and white and neat, She's older than their mothers, but They grovel at Her feet. They walk beside Her 'rickshaw wheels -- None ever walk by mine; And that's because I'm seventeen And She is foty-nine. She rides with half a dozen men, (She calls them "boys" and "mashers") I trot along the Mall alone; My prettiest frocks and sashes Don't help to fill my programme-card, And vainly I repine From ten to two A.M. Ah me! Would I were forty-nine! She calls me "darling," "pet," and "dear," And "sweet retiring maid." I'm always at the back, I know, She puts me in the shade. She introduces me to men, "Cast" lovers, I opine, For sixty takes to seventeen, Nineteen to foty-nine. But even She must older grow And end Her dancing days, She can't go on forever so At concerts, balls and plays. One ray of priceless hope I see Before my footsteps shine; Just think, that She'll be eighty-one When I am forty-nine.