by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Language: English
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Composition:
- Set to music by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Sonnet 116", 1983 [ medium-high voice and piano ]
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 116
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. 116, first published 1857
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Sonett CXVI", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Mai non avvenga che io ponga impedimento", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-05-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 109