I never saw that you did painting need
Language: English
I never saw that you did painting need,
And therefore to your fair no painting set;
I found, or thought I found, you did exceed
That barren tender of a poet's debt:
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself, being extant, well might show
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory being dumb;
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life, and bring a tomb.
There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
Than both your poets can in praise devise.
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Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 116
Mai ho ritenuto di dover aggiungere...
Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English
Mai ho ritenuto di dover aggiungere altro colore
che la tua delicata bellezza possa arricchire;
pensavo, o lo credevo, che fossi superiore
ai miseri tributi che un poeta può offrire.
E per tale ragione fui pigro a lodarti
perché dimostri con il tuo aspetto stesso
quanto penna di poeta non basti
a descrivere le virtù che sono in tuo possesso.
Hai imputato a mia colpa il mio lungo silenzio
ma l’essere stato muto sarà di mia gloria motivo
e infatti, tacendo, non danneggio il tuo aspetto
che, se descritto, è ucciso e non rimane vivo.
In uno solo dei tuoi begli occhi più vita si trova
di quanto possa inventarne la coppia di poeti che ti loda.
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Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2025 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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This text was added to the website: 2025-07-17
Line count: 14
Word count: 117
