We have already written many times about the fact that films and TV series need to be watched in the original. About music, too, and advised to watch videos on YouTube, and read books in English too. Now we got to the poetry.
In today's article, you will see how important it is to read English poets in their language, and how much meaning is lost and distorted in translation.
William's father was a fairly respected person in his city. He had land, he was engaged in agriculture and making gloves. The family was considered rich enough, and the father was elected several times to the local government, and once he was even the mayor. And although the family had eight children (the third of whom was the future playwright), each of them managed to get proper upbringing and education.
In his early years, William received a quality education in a good school: he studied foreign languages, including Latin, participated in staging scenes and played in them himself. He was also actively fond of ancient Roman poetry.
At the age of 18, he began a relationship with the 26-year-old daughter of a neighbor. Soon the girl became pregnant and they got married. After the birth of their first child, the newly formed family also had twins: a boy and a girl. However, a tragedy struck: the only heir dies from the disease, and the wife is already unable to give birth to a new child after a difficult birth. William decides to leave his family and leaves for London, where his creative career begins.
Recently, more and more theories have been heard that such a person as William Shakespeare could not exist, or that young William is an ordinary person, and William the playwright is just a pseudonym and an image. It is still impossible to solve the "Shakespearean question" until now, because there are very few historically reliable references to the author, and there is a huge blank spot in his biography between his departure to London and the first literary works.
English sonnet
The sonnet is one of the ancient literary genres, which was created not in Latin, but in the local language. Over time, researchers of creativity have developed three main types: Italian, French and English sonnets, each with its own structure. English consists of three quatrains and a final couplet.
In total, the English poet wrote 154 sonnets... Traditionally, these are emotional monologues on the themes of love, friendship, life, death and art.
Correct translation of Shakespeare's sonnets
Translators are trying to translate the text so that it retains rhythm and rhyme in Russian. You often have to sacrifice meaning. We invite you to take a look. How sonnets would look if translated literally.
130
| Original | Hood. translation |
|
My mistress "eyes are nothing like the sun * |
Her eyes don't look like stars * |
|
I have seen roses damasked, red and white |
With damask rose, scarlet or white |
|
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know |
You will not find perfect lines in it |
|
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare |
And yet she will give in to those hardly |
In the first quatrain in the original, the eyes are like the sun (sun), but translated already into the stars.
In the original, the skin is dark (dun), unlike snow. And in translation, the skin itself became snow-white
In the second block, Shakespeare writes about the smell of breath (breath), and the translator is about body odor.
In Shakespeare's third quatrain, there is not a word about perfect lines and brows. I love to hear her speak- I love to hear her speak. And then she is compared to music.
57
| Original | Hood. translation |
|
As an unperfect actor on the stage |
Like the actor who, shy |
|
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say |
So I stay silent, not knowing what to say |
|
O! let my books be then the eloquence |
So let the book speak to you |
|
O! learn to read what silent love hath writ: |
Will you read the words of mute love? |
The meaning of the second quatrain is conveyed in your own words. Second line the perfect ceremony of love "s rite(ideal love ceremony) does not figure at all. Love "s strength seem to decay(the power of love seems to be disintegrating) is translated as "the heart has cooled" in the second line.
Recompense(reckoning) in the translation of the third quatrain appears, and the fact that the one demanding reckoning also begs for love (plead for love) not said. And the second and fourth lines are omitted and replaced with the words of the translator.
And the questions at the end were not in the original either.
Shakespeare's Language: How to Perceive Outdated English
The poet's sonnets and dramatic works are written in Early New English. It is believed that it was this author who pushed the language to development, and thanks to Shakespeare, today's modern English looks like that. William introduced many new words into circulation, simplified syntactic constructions and narrowed the then existing gap between spoken and written English.
But the language of the sixteenth century is only the rudiment of the modern. Therefore, it has its own characteristics:
- Archaisms and words that return the reader to that era. Some of them have already dropped out of the speech.
- Complex sentence structure
- A freer word order that can be confusing to the untrained reader. It will be difficult for a non-native speaker, even with good English, to grasp the idea.
- Large role of context. Often times, the meaning of the first line of a quatrain is only grasped when you read to the fourth. It is not always possible to understand the message of each line separately.
- Phraseologisms and catchphrases, many of which he invented himself. To this day, English uses expressions like dog at the heads(chase) and others.
By the way, we adopted from Shakespeare not only expressions and quotes like to be or not to be, but whole layers of vocabulary. It was in his works that words such as were first used:
Addiction- addiction
Belongings- things, accessories
Cold-blooded- cold-blooded
Eyeball- eyeball
Fashionable- fashionable
Inaudible- indistinct, inaudible
Manager- manager, manager
Uncomfortable- uncomfortable
Swagger- swagger
Other…
We suggest playing the game in the comments. Write the title of any Shakespearean work you know. But you cannot repeat yourself. If it has already been written above, you need to come up with your own.
EnglishDom # inspire to learn
Shakespeare's Sonnet of Love 23
Like the actor who, being shy,
Loses the thread of a long familiar role
Like that madman who, falling into anger,
In excess of strength, he loses willpower, -
So I am silent, not knowing what to say,
Not because my heart grew cold.
No, it puts a stamp on my lips
My love, which has no limit.
So let the book speak to you.
Let her, my silent intercessor,
Comes to you with recognition and entreaty
And the fair one demands reckoning.
Will you read the words of mute love?
Will you hear my voice with your eyes?
Shakespeare's Sonnet of Love 37
I confess that you and I are two,
Although in love we are one being.
I don't want my vice to be any
I fell on your honor like a stain.
May one thread tie us in love,
But in life we have different bitterness.
She can't change love
But it steals an hour from love.
As a condemned person, I am deprived of the right
To openly recognize you in front of everyone,
And you can't take my bow,
So that your seal does not fall on the honor.
Well, let it go! .. I love you so much.
That I am all yours and your honor!
Oh, how I will sing your praise,
When are we one creature with you?
You can't praise your beauty,
You cannot praise yourself.
Then we exist apart,
So that I appreciate the beauty of beauty
And so you happened to hear
Praise that only you are worth.
Separation is hard for us, like an illness,
But at times a lonely path
Leisure gives the happiest dreams
And allows time to cheat.
Parting divides the heart in half,
To praise a friend was easier for us.
A heart with an eye has a secret treaty:
They ease each other's torment,
When your eyes are looking for you in vain
And the heart gasps in separation.
Your image is a keen eye
Gives the heart to admire to its fullest.
And the heart to the eye at its appointed hour
Love dreams give way to a share.
So in my thoughts or in the flesh
You are in front of me in any moment.
You can go no further than thought.
I am inseparable from her, she is from you.
My gaze draws you and in a dream
And wakes up the heart that sleeps in me.
Wake up love! Is your edge
Dumb, than the sting of hunger and thirst?
No matter how plentiful the food and drink,
You can't get enough once.
So is love. Her hungry look
Today I am satisfied to the point of exhaustion,
And tomorrow you are again enveloped in fire,
Born to burn, not decay.
For love to be dear to us
May the hour of separation be the ocean
Let two, going to the coast,
Hands stretch out one to the other.
Let this hour be the winter cold
To spring warmer us!
Is it your fault that your sweet image
Doesn't let me close my lashes
And standing over my head
Doesn't allow heavy eyelids to close?
Your soul comes in silence
Check my deeds and thoughts,
To expose all lies and idleness in me,
How can I measure my whole life?
Oh no, your love is not so strong
To be my headboard,
My, my love knows no sleep.
We stand guard with my love.
I can’t forget to sleep until
You - away from me - are close to others.
If you stop loving - so now,
Now that the whole world is at odds with me.
Be the most bitter of my losses
But not the last straw of grief!
And if sorrow is given to me to overcome,
Do not ambush.
May the stormy night not be resolved
On a rainy morning - a morning without comfort.
Leave me, but not at the last moment
When from minor troubles I will be weakened.
Leave it now, so that I can immediately comprehend
That this grief of all adversity hurts the most,
That there are no hardships, but there is one trouble -
To lose your love forever.
You cannot escape me.
You will be mine until the last days.
My life is connected with love,
And he must end with her.
Why should I be afraid of the worst troubles
When the lesser death threatens me?
And I have no addiction
From your whims or offenses.
I'm not afraid of your betrayal.
Your betrayal is a merciless knife.
Oh, how my sad lot is blessed:
I was yours and you will kill me.
But there is no happiness in the world without a spot.
Who will tell me that you are true now?
Well, I will live, accepting as a condition,
That you are true. Although you have become different
But the shadow of love seems to us like love.
Not with your heart - so be with me with your eyes.
Your gaze does not speak of a change.
He harbors neither boredom nor enmity.
There are persons on whom crimes
They make indelible marks.
But, apparently, this is what the higher powers want:
Let your beautiful lips lie
But in this look, affectionate and sweet,
The purity still shines.
It was a wonderful apple that from the tree
Adam was thrown off by Eve.
I love - but less often I talk about it,
I love more tenderly - but not for many eyes.
The one that is in front of the light trades in feeling
He flaunts his whole soul.
I met you with a song like greetings,
When love was new to us
So the nightingale thunders in the midnight hour
In the spring, but he forgets the flute in the summer.
The night will not lose its charm,
When his outpouring ceases.
But the music, sounding from all branches,
Having become ordinary, it loses its charm.
And I fell silent like a nightingale:
I sang my own and I don't sing any more.
Shakespeare's Sonnet of Love 104
You don't change over the years.
The same you were when for the first time
I met you. Three gray winters
Three magnificent years have covered the trail.
Three gentle springs have changed color
On juicy fruit and fire leaves,
And three times the forest was stripped in autumn ...
And the elements do not rule over you.
On the dial, showing us the hour,
Leaving the number, the arrow is golden
Slightly moves invisible to the eye,
So I don’t notice you for years.
And if the sunset is necessary, -
He was before your birth!
When I read in a scroll of dead years
About fiery lips, long dumb,
About the beauty that composes the verse
For the glory of ladies and beautiful knights,
Traits kept for centuries -
Eyes, smile, hair and eyebrows -
They tell me that only in the ancient word
You could be completely reflected.
In any line to your beautiful lady
The poet dreamed of predicting you
But he could not convey all of you,
Glaring into the distance with loving eyes.
And to us, to whom you are finally close, -
Where can I get a voice to sound for centuries?
From the day of parting - an eye in my soul,
And the one that I find the way
Does not distinguish between visible things
Even though I still look at everything.
Neither heart nor mind a quick glance
Cannot give a report on what he saw.
He is not happy with grass, flowers and birds,
And nothing lives in it for a long time.
A beautiful and ugly item
The gaze turns into your likeness:
Dove and crow, darkness and light,
Azure sea and mountain tops.
I am full of you and I am deprived of you,
My faithful gaze, the wrong one, sees a dream.
Interfere with the union of two hearts
I do not intend to. Can treason
To put an end to immeasurable love?
Love does not know loss and decay.
Love is a beacon raised over the storm
Not fading in darkness and fog.
Love is the star by which the sailor
Determines the location in the ocean.
Love is not a pathetic doll in the hands
By the time that erases roses
On fiery lips and cheeks
And threats are not scary to her at the time.
And if I'm wrong and my verse is lying,
Then there is no love - and there are no my poems!
Tell me that I neglected to pay
For all the good that I owe you,
That I forgot your cherished threshold,
With which I am bound by all ties,
I didn't know the price of your watch
Mercilessly giving them to strangers,
That let the unknown sails
Carry yourself from the land dear to me.
All the crimes of my liberty
You put my love next to you
Submit to the strict judgment of your eyes
But don't kill me with a deadly look.
It's my fault. But all my fault
Shows how your love is true.
For appetite with spicy condiments
We call a bitter taste in the mouth.
We drink bitterness to avoid poisoning,
Deliberately arousing lightheadedness.
So spoiled by your love
I found joy in bitter thoughts
And invented ill health for himself
Still in the prime of vigor and strength.
From this love deceit
And the salvation of fictional troubles
I got sick in earnest and medications
He swallowed the bitter ones to his own detriment.
But I realized: drugs are deadly poison
Those who are sick with boundless love.
Her eyes are not like the stars
You can't call your mouth corals,
Open skin is not snow-white,
And a strand curls with black wire.
With a damask rose, scarlet or white,
The shade of these cheeks cannot be compared.
And the body smells like the body smells,
Not like violets a delicate petal.
You will not find perfect lines in it,
A special light on the forehead.
I don't know how the goddesses walk,
But sweetheart steps on the ground.
And yet she will hardly yield to those,
Whom in comparisons lavish slandered.
An agonizing, unquenchable thirst.
She demands the same poison,
Who poisoned her once.
My mind is a doctor who healed my love.
She rejected herbs and roots
And the poor doctor was exhausted
And he left us, losing his patience.
From now on, my ailment is incurable.
The soul finds no rest in anything.
Abandoned by my mind
And feelings and words wander at will.
And for a long time to me, devoid of mind,
Hell seemed like heaven, and darkness seemed like light!
The god of love lay down under the tree,
Throwing his burning torch to the ground.
Seeing that the insidious god fell asleep,
The nymphs decided to run out of the thicket.
One of them approached the fire,
Who has done a lot of troubles for the virgins,
And she dipped the brand into the water,
Disarming the dormant god.
The water in the stream became hot.
She has treated many ailments.
And I went swimming in that stream
To recover from love for a friend.
Love warmed the water - but the water
Love has never cooled.
But if time threatens us with a siege,
Why, in the prime of his life
You will not protect youth with a fence
More reliable than my barren verse?
You have reached the top of the earthly path,
And so many young virgin hearts
We are ready to repeat your gentle look,
How not to repeat a brush or a cutter.
So life will correct everything that it mutilates.
And if you give yourself to love,
She will more truly perpetuate you,
Than this fluent, fragile pencil.
By giving yourself, you will keep forever
Oneself in a new creation - in man.
Like the actor who, being shy,
Loses the thread of a long familiar role
Like that madman who, falling into anger,
In excess of strength, he loses willpower, -
So I am silent, not knowing what to say,
Not because my heart grew cold.
No, it puts a stamp on my lips
My love, which has no limit.
So let the book speak to you.
Let her, my silent intercessor,
Comes to you with recognition and entreaty
And the fair one demands reckoning.
Will you read the words of mute love?
Will you hear my voice with your eyes?
A heart with an eye has a secret treaty:
They ease each other's torment,
When your eyes are looking for you in vain
And the heart gasps in separation.
Your image is a keen eye
Gives the heart to admire to its fullest.
And the heart to the eye at its appointed hour
Love dreams give way to a share.
So in my thoughts or in the flesh
You are in front of me in any moment.
You can go no further than thought.
I am inseparable from her, she is from you.
My gaze draws you and in a dream
And wakes up the heart that sleeps in me.
In your chest I hear all the hearts
What I thought was hidden in the graves.
In the beautiful features of your face
There is a glimpse of faces, once dear to the heart.
I shed a lot of tears over them,
Kneeling down at the grave stone.
But, apparently, rock carried them away for a while -
And now we meet again.
They found their last shelter in you
Me close and memorable faces,
And they all give you with a bow
My love is a wasted particle.
All dear in you I find
And all of you - all of them - belong.
I watched the sun rise
Caress the mountains with a benevolent gaze,
Then he sends a smile to the green meadows
And gilded the surface of the pale waters.
But often the firmament allows
Wandering around the clouds in front of the bright throne.
They crawl over the darkened world,
Depriving the land of royal bounty.
So my sun rose for an hour,
Showering me generously with gifts.
A cloud crept up, gloomy, blind,
And the gentle light of my love faded away.
But I do not grumble at the sad lot, -
There are clouds on the ground, as in the sky.
I confess that you and I are two,
Although in love we are one being.
I don't want my vice to be any
I fell on your honor like a stain.
May one thread tie us in love,
But in life we have different bitterness.
She can't change love
But it steals an hour from love.
As a condemned person, I am deprived of the right
To openly recognize you in front of everyone,
And you can't take my bow,
So that your seal does not fall on the honor.
Well, let it go! .. I love you so much.
That I am all yours and your honor!
How happy a father is on the declining days
Young courage of heirs,
So. with your righteousness and glory
I admire, fading ingloriously.
Generosity, nobility, beauty,
And a sharp mind, and strength, and health -
Almost every feature of yours
Passed on to me with your love.
I'm not poor, I'm not weak, I'm not alone,
And the shadow of love that falls on me
Such bounty carries with it a stream,
That I live in one part of it.
All that I can wish for you
It descends from you as grace.
Oh, how I will sing your praise,
When are we one creature with you?
You can't praise your beauty,
You cannot praise yourself.
Then we exist apart,
So that I appreciate the beauty of beauty
And so you happened to hear
Praise that only you are worth.
Separation is hard for us, like an illness,
But at times a lonely path
Leisure gives the happiest dreams
And allows time to cheat.
Parting divides the heart in half,
To praise a friend was easier for us.
Take all my passions, all my loves,
From this you will gain little.
Everything that people call love,
And without that it belonged to you.
I do not blame you, my friend,
That you own what I own.
No, I will only reproach you for one thing,
That you have neglected my love.
You deprived the beggar of his wallet.
But I have forgiven the captivating thief.
We endure resentment of love
Harder than the poison of open discord.
Oh you, whose evil seems to me to be good.
Kill me, but don't be my enemy!
O spirit of love, rise up! Let the appetite
Without dulling, it will return to me again:
After all, no matter how much I am fed today,
Hunger will develop tomorrow.
Be you the same! Now let your
Eyes stick together from satiety,
But tomorrow get dusty, my spirit of love,
Stupid overcome the daze!
A similar heat is given to two betrothed:
Across the ocean, hands stretch to each other -
They were torn apart by the silent ocean
Broadcasting meeting and end of parting.
Parting is like a cold that in winter
Preparing to arrange the summer heat.
Or do you send down weariness -
Can't close my eyes sometimes at night?
Or are they shadows, messengers of torment,
Are they friendly with you, laugh at me?
Or is it your spirit sent by you,
To jealously follow me always -
Noticing any sin,
To expose me of infidelity?
Oh no, you don't love me that much
To disturb my peace at a late hour, -
That I love! And until then I am bitter
That again I, your guardian, do not close my eyes:
Love stands guard in silence
While you are closer to others than to me.
If you stop loving - so now,
Now that the whole world is at odds with me.
Be the most bitter of my losses
But not the last straw of grief!
And if sorrow is given to me to overcome,
Do not ambush.
May the stormy night not be resolved
On a rainy morning - a morning without comfort.
Leave me, but not at the last moment
When from minor troubles I will be weakened.
Leave it now, so that I can immediately comprehend
That this grief of all adversity hurts the most,
That there are no hardships, but there is one trouble -
To lose your love forever.
Translated by S. Marshak
You cannot escape me.
You will be mine until the last days.
My life is connected with love,
And he must end with her.
Why should I be afraid of the worst troubles
When the lesser death threatens me?
And I have no addiction
From your whims or offenses.
I'm not afraid of your betrayal.
Your betrayal is a merciless knife.
Oh, how my sad lot is blessed:
I was yours and you will kill me.
But there is no happiness in the world without a spot.
Who will tell me that you are true now?
Translated by S. Marshak
Well, I will live, accepting as a condition,
That you are true. Although you have become different
But the shadow of love seems to us like love.
Not with your heart - so be with me with your eyes.
Your gaze does not speak of a change.
He harbors neither boredom nor enmity.
There are persons on whom crimes
They make indelible marks.
But, apparently, this is what the higher powers want:
Let your beautiful lips lie
But in this look, affectionate and sweet,
The purity still shines.
It was a wonderful apple that from the tree
Adam was thrown off by Eve.
Translated by S. Marshak
I love - but less often I talk about it,
I love more tenderly - but not for many eyes.
The one that is in front of the light trades in feeling
He flaunts his whole soul.
I met you with a song like greetings,
When love was new to us
So the nightingale thunders in the midnight hour
In the spring, but he forgets the flute in the summer.
The night will not lose its charm,
When his outpouring ceases.
But the music, sounding from all branches,
Having become ordinary, it loses its charm.
And I fell silent like a nightingale:
I sang my own and I don't sing any more.
Translated by S. Marshak
You don't change over the years.
The same you were when for the first time
I met you. Three gray winters
Three magnificent years have covered the trail.
Three gentle springs have changed color
On juicy fruit and fire leaves,
And three times the forest was stripped in autumn ...
And the elements do not rule over you.
On the dial, showing us the hour,
Leaving the number, the arrow is golden
Slightly moves invisible to the eye,
So I don’t notice you for years.
When I read in a scroll of dead years
About fiery lips, long dumb,
About the beauty that composes the verse
For the glory of ladies and beautiful knights,
Traits kept for centuries -
Eyes, smile, hair and eyebrows -
They tell me that only in the ancient word
You could be completely reflected.
In any line to your beautiful lady
The poet dreamed of predicting you
But he could not convey all of you,
Glaring into the distance with loving eyes.
And to us, to whom you are finally close, -
Where can I get a voice to sound for centuries?
Translated by S. Marshak
My unfaithful friend
do not call.
How could I change or change?
My soul, the soul of my love,
In your chest, as my pledge, is stored.
You are my refuge, granted by fate.
I left and came back
As he was and brought with him
Living water that washes away stains.
Let my sins burn my blood,
But I did not reach the last edge,
So that you do not return from wanderings again
To you, the source of all blessings.
What is this spacious light without you?
You are alone in it. There is no other happiness.
Translated by S. Marshak
From the day of parting -
an eye in my soul,
And the one that I find the way
Does not distinguish between visible things
Even though I still look at everything.
Neither heart nor mind a quick glance
Cannot give a report on what he saw.
He is not happy with grass, flowers and birds,
And nothing lives in it for a long time.
A beautiful and ugly item
The gaze turns into your likeness:
Dove and crow, darkness and light,
Azure sea and mountain tops.
I am full of you and I am deprived of you,
My faithful gaze, the wrong one, sees a dream.
Translated by S. Marshak
In the era of Shakespeare, it was unprofitable, but very fashionable to write poetry about tender feelings. This provided the author with a certain status, aroused confidence in his talent, and could even strengthen his social position. Shakespeare was least of all worried about the opinion of the public, he loved to write poetry, but he did it mainly for himself. He poured out on paper his doubts and experiences, his insecurity and fear of opening his soul. His attitude towards love is contradictory and painful. He worships this feeling, but at the same time he is afraid and runs away from it.
According to the author, it is not always possible to correctly place accents, people suffer if they confuse concepts such as pure love, sexual attraction or fleeting passion. Shakespeare in many of his sonnets shows that time is the main enemy of love. Years destroy feelings, because time makes beauty disappear, people age, and life is not endless. But the main idea that runs through all love lyrics is that immortality is possible through poetry. As long as people read love lyrics, the object of the poet's adoration will live on. Many researchers read Shakespeare's sonnets as pages of his autobiography and connect his experiences with what happened in his life.
Shakespeare's exact date of birth remains unknown. He was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratfordan on April 26, 1564. The boy was his mother's third child, but the first to survive infancy. The theater has attracted him since childhood, and already at a young age, William performs on stage in London. The following years were not easy, but they influenced his attitude to the world. Early hasty marriage, depression. He travels a lot, teaches, composes. At the age of 30, his first glory comes to him as a playwright. He writes two stories in verse, in which he already defines his attitude to love. Shakespeare's poems about love reflect the mores of that era like a mirror. His works are distinguished by thematic variety and attempts to show the inner workings of the mind. The poems touch upon such reflections that were relevant for the 1590s as the relationship of poetry to painting and the possibility of literary immortality, as well as questions of lust and even attraction to the opposite sex. Two of his poems are characteristic in this respect: "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucretia". Both are dedicated to the Honorable Henry Vriotsley, Earl of Southampton, who, as a sponsor and benefactor, supported the author in his work. Both of these poems contain dozens of stanzas and comment on depravity, the author highlights the theme of guilt, doubt, lust and moral confusion, which leads to excessive passions.
Society accepts his creativity and he works like a man possessed. In the same years, 154 sonnets, as well as historical plays, which show the most dramatic episodes for England: "Henry VI", "Richard II" and "Richard III", came out from under his pen. Comedies are easy for him, the most famous of which are "The Comedy of Errors" and "The Taming of the Shrew", "The Merchant of Venice", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Pranksters of Windsor" and others. ". Shakespeare in it is a playwright, actor, co-owner. 1600 was the most fruitful year for him, during this period he creates his best works: "Julius Caesar", "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", "Macbeth". 12 years later, at the peak of his fame, he unexpectedly leaves the capital, returns to Stratford. After 4 years, he dies, leaving a very mysterious will. About which literary critics have been arguing for more than one century. Some even question Shakespeare's authorship in many of his works. Glory and recognition did not hide the inner vulnerability and drama that grew inside the poet - such was Shakespeare. Love poems always carry a note of doom. For example, the short poem "Phoenix" and "Turtle". Devoted and faithful love is powerless in the face of fate. The legendary phoenix burns out, and the turtle falls into hopeless despair. Shakespeare talks about the fragility of love and about an imperfect world, where only death is certain. Shakespeare, whose love poems are very unusual, uses the usual English form of constructing a sonnet: three quatrains, crowned with a couplet. Typically, there is a dramatic conflict in every sonnet. The hero is sure to struggle with some kind of problem or situation. The intensity of passions is shown by such techniques as: an instant change in tone, mood and style. Several sonnets use the seasons to symbolize the passage of time and show that everything in nature - from plants to humans - is mortal. But nature creates beauty, which poets pick up and make immortal in their poems.
Modern readers associate the form of the sonnet with romantic love and with good reason: the first sonnets, written in Italy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, noted the feelings of poets for their beloved. These sonnets were addressed to posh women and wealthy nobles who supported the poets with money, usually in exchange for high praise. Shakespeare's appeal to the unknown young man in most of the sonnets was unique in Elizabethan England. In addition, Shakespeare used his sonnets to explore different types of love, including between men. In part, this was done in defiance of the prevailing template in society about angelic behavior, eternal virginity and perseverance.
Almost all of the lyrics warn the reader about the dangers of lust and love. Shakespeare says that if a person misunderstands his essence, then he may be mistaken in his sexual desire and pass by true love, blind love dulls the perception of reality. Several sonnets directly speak of what lust makes "wild, extreme, rude, cruel."
Shakespeare's phenomenon is that he portrays love not only as a romantic sublime feeling, but also as a basic physical need with all the ensuing consequences. Love causes fear, alienation, despair and physical discomfort, not just the pleasant emotions or euphoria that are usually associated with romantic feelings.
Shakespeare's poems about love in Russian sound like a melody about the strength and fragility of feelings. In the author's legacy there are 152 sonnets, and in each he speaks of the deep insecurity of a loving person, the torment of jealousy, grief in separation, as well as the insane joy of sharing wonderful impressions and romantic little things.
Most of Shakespeare's sonnets are divided into two series. First, these are poems about the "Dark Lady" showing the torment of passion for a married woman, the eternal circles of hell of forbidden love. The sonnets end with the poet admitting that he is a slave to his passion for women and cannot do anything to curb his lust. The second cycle is devoted to a vague and incomprehensible attraction to a handsome young man. This dichotomy has been widely studied and discussed, and it is not yet clear whether these were confessions to real people, or whether the author threw out two opposite sides of his own personality on paper. In both cases, the relationship fluctuates between feelings of love, hatred, jealousy and contempt.
Being a very vulnerable person, Shakespeare preferred to give poems about love only to a close circle of people dear to him, most of his sonnets were published after the death of the author.
Shakespeare in his work tried to explore the conflict between the role that society determines a person and his personal moral principles. And in this he indirectly expresses the concern of his entire generation. Shakespeare took literature to a whole new level. The ambiguity of his language is striking. This linguistic richness can be seen as an act of social aspiration, as a process of dismantling the traditional distinctions between rhetoric, philosophy and poetry. Such was William Shakespeare, he left poems about love to posterity as a reminder of how to protect your feelings, appreciate and always remember that life is only a moment. With his work, Shakespeare, in fact, finally formed the English language and culture and drew a line under the Renaissance. Even now, no one can do without his plays, not a single repertoire of world theaters.
Be as smart as evil. Do not open
The clamped lips of my heartache.
Not that suffering, rushing over the edge,
They will speak suddenly against their will.
Even though you don't love me, lie
Me fake, imaginary love.
Who lives a few days
He expects doctors to hope for health.
You will drive me crazy with contempt
And you will force the silence to break.
And the evil-speaking light is any lie,
Any insane nonsense is ready to overhear.
To avoid the stigma
Curve your soul, but be straight in appearance!
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
On that black day (let it pass us!),
When you see all my vices
When you run out of patience
And you will declare a cruel sentence to me,
When, meeting with me in a crowd of people,
You can hardly give me a clear look,
And I will see the cold and the calm
In your face, still beautiful, -
That day will help my grief
The knowledge that I'm not worth you
And I will raise my hand in oath,
All justified by their wrong.
You have the right to leave me, my friend,
And I have no merit for happiness.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Like the actor who, being shy,
Loses the thread of a long familiar role
Like that madman who, falling into anger,
In excess of strength, he loses willpower, -
So I am silent, not knowing what to say,
Not because my heart grew cold.
No, it puts a stamp on my lips
My love, which has no limit.
So let the book speak to you.
Let her, my silent intercessor,
Comes to you with recognition and entreaty
And the fair one demands reckoning.
Will you read the words of mute love?
Will you hear my voice with your eyes?
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
How can I overcome fatigue,
When am I deprived of the goodness of peace?
The worries of the day are not relieved by the night
And night, like day, torments me with anguish.
And day and night - enemies among themselves -
As if shaking hands with each other.
I work by day, rejected by fate,
And at night I do not sleep, sad in separation.
To win over the dawn
I compared a fine day with you
And on the dark night he sent greetings,
Saying that the stars are like you.
But my next day is getting harder
And the shadow is getting darker and darker than the coming night.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
When in discord with the world and fate,
Remembering the years full of adversity,
I worry with a fruitless plea
Deaf and indifferent firmament
And, complaining about the woeful lot,
I am ready to exchange my lot
With the one who is more successful in art,
They are rich in hope and love people, -
Then, suddenly remembering you,
I swear a pitiful faint-heartedness,
And a lark, contrary to fate,
My soul rushes high.
With your love, with the memory of her
I am stronger than all the kings in the world.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
When you want, having cooled to me,
Surrender me to ridicule and contempt,
I'll stay by your side
And I will not defame your honor with a shadow.
Knowing perfectly well every vice,
I can tell a story like this
That I will forever remove the reproach from you
I will justify a stained conscience.
And I will be grateful to fate:
Even if I fail in the fight,
But I bring you the honor of victory
And twice I gain everything I spend.
I'm willing to be a victim to be wrong
So that you are only right.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
When to the judgment of silent, secret thoughts
I call the voices of the past, -
Losses all come to my mind
And with the old pain I am sick again.
From eyes that did not know tears, I shed tears
About those who are hidden in the dark grave,
I am looking for my lost love
And everything that was cute to me in life.
I keep count of what I have lost
And I am terrified again at the loss of each,
And again I cry dearly
For what I paid for once!
But I find the past in you
And he is ready to forgive everything to his fate.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Who boasts of his kinship with the nobility,
Some by force, some by brilliant galloon,
Some with a wallet, some with buckles on a dress,
Some with a falcon, a dog, a horse.
People have different addictions,
But everyone is dearer only one.
And I have special happiness, -
It contains the rest.
Your love, my friend, is dearer than treasure,
More honorable than the crown of kings
More elegant than a rich outfit
Falcon hunting is more fun.
You can take everything I own
And at that moment I will immediately become impoverished.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
I love your eyes. They are me,
Forgotten, unfeigned pity.
Burying a rejected friend,
They, like mourning, wear their color black.
Believe that the sun doesn't shine like that
The face of the gray-haired early east,
And that star that leads the evening to us -
Heaven's transparent western eye -
Not so radiant and not so bright,
Like this gaze, beautiful and farewell.
Oh, if only you would clothe your heart
In the same mourning, soft and sad, -
I would think that beauty itself
Black as night, and brighter than light - darkness!
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
I love - but less often I talk about it,
I love more tenderly - but not for many eyes.
The one that is in front of the light trades in feeling
He flaunts his whole soul.
I met you with a song like greetings,
When love was new to us
So the nightingale thunders in the midnight hour
In the spring, but he forgets the flute in the summer.
The night will not lose its charm,
When his outpouring ceases.
But the music, sounding from all branches,
Having become ordinary, it loses its charm.
And I fell silent like a nightingale:
I sang my own and I don't sing any more.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Love is blind and it deprives us of our eyes.
I do not see what I see clearly.
I've seen beauty, but every time
I could not understand what was bad, what was beautiful.
And if the looks of the heart brought
And the anchor was thrown into such waters,
Where many ships pass, -
Why don't you give him freedom?
Like a driveway to my heart
Could seem a happy manor?
But everything that I saw denied my gaze,
Tint the deceitful face with the truth.
Truthful light was replaced by darkness,
And the lie has seized me like a plague.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Love is my sin, and your anger is just.
You do not forgive my vice.
But, comparing our crimes,
You will not reproach my love.
Or you will understand that it is not your mouth
They have the right to expose me.
Their beauty has long been desecrated
A betrayal, a lie, an evil oath.
Is my love more sinful than yours?
May I love you, and you - another,
But you have pity on me in misfortune,
So that the light does not condemn you harshly.
And if pity sleeps in your chest
Then you yourself do not expect pity!
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Interfere with the union of two hearts
I do not intend to. Can treason
To put an end to immeasurable love?
Love does not know loss and decay.
Love is a beacon raised over the storm
Not fading in darkness and fog.
Love is the star by which the sailor
Determines the location in the ocean.
Love is not a pathetic doll in the hands
By the time that erases roses
On fiery lips and cheeks
And threats are not scary to her at the time.
And if I'm wrong and my verse is lying,
Then there is no love - and there are no my poems!
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
My eyes are not in love with you, -
They see your vices clearly.
And the heart is not a single fault of yours
He does not see and does not agree with his eyes.
And yet, external feelings are not given -
Not all five, not each separately -
To assure the poor heart is one,
That this slavery is fatal to him.
In my misfortune, I'm alone,
That you are my sin and you are my eternal hell.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
My eye to heart - has long been in the fight:
They cannot divide you.
My eye demands your image
And the heart in the heart wants to hide.
The faithful heart swears that you
Invisible to the eyes, you are kept in it.
And the eye is sure that your features
He keeps in his clean mirror.
To judge an internecine dispute,
Thought gathered at the court table
And clear eyes decided to reconcile
And dear heart forever.
They divided the treasure into pieces,
Having entrusted the heart to the heart, the gaze - the gaze.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Oh, how I lied once, saying:
"My love couldn't be stronger."
I did not know, full of grief,
That I can love even more tenderly.
Foreseeing a million accidents,
Invading every moment
Breaking the immutable law
Wavering and vows and aspirations,
Not believing in a changeable fate,
And only for an hour that has not yet lived,
I said, "My love for you
So great it can't be anymore! "
Love is a child. I was wrong in front of her,
Calling the child an adult woman.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Don't force me to justify
Your injustice and deceit.
Better to conquer strength by force,
But do not hurt me by cunning.
Love another, but in moments of meeting
Don't take your eyelashes away from me.
Why cheat? Your gaze is a shattering sword
And there is no armor on a loving chest.
You yourself know the power of your eyes,
And, perhaps, looking away,
You are preparing to kill others,
Sparing me out of mercy.
Oh, do not have mercy! Let your gaze be direct
If he kills me, I will be glad to die.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Where do you get so much strength
To rule over me in powerlessness?
I inculcate lies in my own eyes
I swear to them that daylight was not bright.
So endless is the charm of evil,
The confidence and power of sinful powers,
That I, forgiving black deeds,
Your sin, as a virtue, fell in love.
Anything that would nourish enmity in another,
Feeds the tenderness in my chest.
I love the fact that everyone swears around,
But don't judge me with everyone.
The one is worthy of special love
Who gives the unworthy soul.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Half the trouble that you own her
But to be aware and to see that she
Owns you - twice as painful for me.
The loss of your love is terrible for me.
I myself came up with an excuse for you:
Loving me, you loved her.
And my dear gives you a date
For the fact that you are infinitely dear to me.
And if I need to lose, -
I give my losses to you:
Her love was found by my beloved friend,
Beloved has found your love.
But if my friend and I are the same
Then I, as before, is dearer to her ...
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
I confess that you and I are two,
Although in love we are one being.
I don't want my vice to be any
I fell on your honor like a stain.
May one thread tie us in love,
But in life we have different bitterness.
She can't change love
But it steals an hour from love.
As a condemned person, I am deprived of the right
To openly recognize you in front of everyone,
And you can't take my bow,
So that your seal does not fall on the honor.
Well, let it go! .. I love you so much.
That I am all yours and your honor!
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Goodbye! I dare not hold you back.
I value your love dearly.
I cannot afford what I own,
And I humbly give the deposit.
I, as a gift, use love.
It is not bought by merit.
And so, a voluntary condition
On a whim, you are free to violate.
You gave me, I don’t know the price
Or maybe not knowing me.
And an unjustly taken reward
I have kept it up to this day.
I was king only in a dream.
The awakening took my throne.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Tell me that I neglected to pay
For all the good that I owe you,
That I forgot your cherished threshold,
With which I am bound by all ties,
I didn't know the price of your watch
Mercilessly giving them to strangers,
That let the unknown sails
Carry yourself from the land dear to me.
All the crimes of my liberty
You put my love next to you
Submit to the strict judgment of your eyes
But don't kill me with a deadly look.
It's my fault. But all my fault
Shows how your love is true.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Closing my eyelids, I see sharper.
Opening my eyes, I look without noticing
But the dark look of my eyes was bright,
When I turn them to you in a dream.
And if the night shadow is so bright -
Reflection of your obscure shadow, -
How great is your light on a radiant day
How much brighter reality is a dream!
What happiness would be for me -
Waking up in the morning to see firsthand
That clear face in the rays of a living day,
That shone on me foggy dead night.
A day without you seemed like a night to me
And I saw the day at night in a dream.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Is it your fault that your sweet image
Doesn't let me close my lashes
And standing over my head
Doesn't allow heavy eyelids to close?
Your soul comes in silence
Check my deeds and thoughts,
To expose all lies and idleness in me,
How can I measure my whole life?
Oh no, your love is not so strong
To be my headboard,
My, my love knows no sleep.
We stand guard with my love.
I can’t forget to sleep until
You - away from me - are close to others.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
I am exhausted by work, I want to sleep,
Find blissful rest in bed.
But as soon as I lie down, I start on the road again -
In their dreams - to the same goal.
My dreams and feelings for the hundredth time
They are coming to you, dear pilgrim,
And, without closing our weary eyes,
I see darkness as the blind can see.
By the diligent gaze of heart and mind
I am looking for you in the darkness, without sight.
And the darkness seems great
When you enter it as a light shadow.
I can't find peace from love.
Day and night - I'm always on the road.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
You say there is no love in me.
But am I, waging a war with you,
Not on your side at war
And I don’t surrender my weapons without a fight?
Have I entered into an alliance with your enemy
Do I love those you hate?
And don't I blame myself all around
When in vain will you offend me?
What merit I am proud of
To consider humiliation a shame?
Your sin is dearer to me than virtue,
My sentence is the movement of your eyelashes.
In your enmity, one thing is clear to me:
You love the sighted - I went blind for a long time.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
You cannot escape me.
You will be mine until the last days.
My life is connected with love,
And he must end with her.
Why should I be afraid of the worst troubles
When the lesser death threatens me?
And I have no addiction
From your whims or offenses.
I'm not afraid of your betrayal.
Your betrayal is a merciless knife.
Oh, how my sad lot is blessed:
I was yours and you will kill me.
But there is no happiness in the world without a spot.
Who will tell me that you are true now?
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
A heart with an eye has a secret treaty:
They ease each other's torment,
When your eyes are looking for you in vain
And the heart gasps in separation.
Your image is a keen eye
Gives the heart to admire to its fullest.
And the heart to the eye at its appointed hour
Love dreams give way to a share.
So in my thoughts or in the flesh
You are in front of me in any moment.
You can go no further than thought.
I am inseparable from her, she is from you.
My gaze draws you and in a dream
And wakes up the heart that sleeps in me.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
If you stop loving - so now,
Now that the whole world is at odds with me.
Be the most bitter of my losses
But not the last straw of grief!
And if sorrow is given to me to overcome,
Do not ambush.
May the stormy night not be resolved
On a rainy morning - a morning without comfort.
Leave me, but not at the last moment
When from minor troubles I will be weakened.
Leave it now, so that I can immediately comprehend
That this grief of all adversity hurts the most,
That there are no hardships, but there is one trouble -
To lose your love forever.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
I know my love is sinful
But you are guilty of double betrayal,
Forgetting the marriage vow and again
Breaking the oath of loyalty to love.
But do I have a right to do that
To accuse you of double betrayal?
Frankly, I myself did not commit two,
And as many as twenty perjury.
I swore your kindness more than once,
In your deep love and loyalty.
I blinded the pupils of prejudiced eyes
In order not to see your blemish.
I swore: you are true and pure, -
And he defiled his lips with black lies.
(Translated by S.Ya. Marshak)