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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873)

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Language: English 
Our translations:  ITA
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
    So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
    You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes. 

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 55 [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 Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet LV", 1865 [ medium 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. 55, first published 1857
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , no title, copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 106

Ni le marbre, ni les mausolées dorés
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Ni le marbre, ni les mausolées dorés 
des princes ne dureront plus longtemps que ma rime puissante. 
Vous conserverez plus d'éclat dans ces mesures 
que sous la dalle non balayée que le temps barbouille de sa lie.
Quand la guerre dévastatrice renversera les statues, 
et que les tumultes déracineront l'œuvre de la maçonnerie, 
ni l'épée de Mars, ni le feu ardent de la guerre n'entameront 
la tradition vivante de votre renommée.
En dépit de la mort et de la rage de l'oubli, 
vous avancerez dans l'avenir ; votre gloire trouvera place incessamment 
sous les yeux de toutes les générations 
qui doivent user ce monde jusqu'au jugement dernier.
  Ainsi, jusqu'à l'appel suprême auquel vous vous lèverez vous-même,
  vous vivrez ici sous le regard épris de la postérité.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873), no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 55, first published 1857 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 55
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-17
Line count: 14
Word count: 125

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
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