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Being your slave what should I do but tend,
Upon the hours, and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend;
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour,
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour,
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are, how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love, that in your will,
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 57 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sonnet LVII - Being your slave", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 1 no. 8 (1944-7) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet LVII", 1865-6 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joel Weiss , "Sonnet 57", 1995 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 57, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 117
Schiavo di te, che cosa dovrei fare
se non assecondare tempi e ore, di quanto tu comandi?
Non ho tempo prezioso da sprecare;
Né servizi da fare, finché non lo domandi.
Non oso lamentarmi per quell’ora immensa,
in cui, mio sovrano, fisso in tua attesa l’orologio,
Né giudicare amara ed aspra l'assenza,
Quando hai preso congedo da ogni mio servigio.
Non oso chiedermi, morso dalla gelosia
Dove tu sia, o quale affare ti impegni,
Ma sto come un triste schiavo, che a nient’altro pensi
Se non a chi è felice in tua compagnia.
E’ davvero folle l'amore, che di ogni tuo volere,
O di ogni cosa che fai, pensa solo bene.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2024 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
- a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 57
This text was added to the website: 2024-12-25
Line count: 14
Word count: 111