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2 Shakespeare Sonnets

Song Cycle by Alan Hovhaness (1911 - 2000)

1.
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
  For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
  That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 29

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (L. A. J. Burgersdijk)
  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 29, first published 1857
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Quando agli uomini inviso e alla Fortuna straniero", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2.
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
  But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
  All losses are restored and sorrows end.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 30

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 30, first published 1857
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Quando dolci pensieri in silenzioso convegno", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 230
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