这个是莎士比亚戏剧 《哈姆雷特》中经典台词
To be,or not to be - that is the question
意思是说 活着还是死去,这是一个问题.
Hamlet's endurance has reached the breaking point.His father has been murdered.His mother,who he loves dearly,has married her dead husband's brother.Moreover his sweetheart,Ophelia,has been acting very strangely.He senses that she does not love him any more.Now,he's all alone.The world that he knew is shattered.His black mood of despair is deepened by his inability to act - to do something to change the situation.
Now he ponders whether to continue living - or to take his own life.
Hamlet:
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 heartache,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:ay,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?
