Why is my verse so barren of new pride
Language: English
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth and where they did proceed?
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
About the headline (FAQ)
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):
- by Daniel Ruyneman (1886 - 1963), "Sonnet of Shakespeare", 1949 [ voice and piano ], from Seven melodies, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet LXXVI", 1865-6 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Adolf Wallnöfer (1854 - 1946), "Sonet 76", op. 78 no. 3, published 1904 [ tenor and piano ], from 5 Sonnette von William Shakespeare, no. 3, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, also set in English [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 76, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Perché il mio verso è spoglio di ogni nuovo ornamento", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2003-11-04
Line count: 14
Word count: 114
Perché il mio verso è spoglio di ogni nuovo ornamento
Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English
Perché il mio verso è spoglio di ogni nuovo ornamento,
alieno da virtuosismi o rapide variazioni?
Perché, con la moda dei tempi, non ricerco né tento
metodi originali o strane combinazioni?
Perché mai torno a scrivere alla maniera usata
e con lo stesso abito vesto ogni mia invenzione,
al punto che ogni mia parola pare da me firmata,
svelando la sua nascita e da dove proviene?
Sappilo, dolce mio amore: solo per te è il mio verso,
e tu e l'amore restate il mio costante tema;
ciò che meglio so fare è dare parole nuove al vecchio,
tornando a spendere ciò che già fu speso prima.
E come il sole ogni giorno è nuovo, e antico pure,
così il già detto, ancora, torna a dire il mio amore.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2012 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2012-02-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 128
