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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by Nikolay Vasilyevich Gerbel (1827 - 1883)

Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not
Language: English 
Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,
When I against myself with thee partake?
Do I not think on thee, when I forgot
Am of my self, all tyrant, for thy sake?
Who hateth thee that I do call my friend,
On whom frown'st thou that I do fawn upon,
Nay, if thou lour'st on me, do I not spend
Revenge upon myself with present moan?
What merit do I in my self respect,
That is so proud thy service to despise,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?
    But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind,
    Those that can see thou lov'st, and I am blind. 

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 149 [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 CXLIX", 1864 [ medium voice or high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Nikolay Vasilyevich Gerbel (1827 - 1883) , no title ; composed by Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov.
    • Go to the text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 149, first published 1857


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-13
Line count: 14
Word count: 119

Kak ty mogla skazat', chto ne ljubima mnoj
Language: Russian (Русский)  after the English 
Kak ty mogla skazat', chto [ne ljubima mnoj]1,
Kogda iz-za tebja vrazhduju sam s soboju,
Kogda lish' o tebe ja dumaju odnoj?
Ljublju li ja togo, ne zanjat kto toboju?
Laskaju li ja tekh, kogo ne ljubish' ty?
Kogda zhe ty poroj mne gnevom ugrozhajesh',
Ne napolnjaju l' ja — chto ty, konechno, znajesh' —
Lish' vdokhami svojej dushevnoj pustoty?
Net doblesti vo mne nastol'ko nedostupnoj,
Chtob prenebrech' na mig sluzhenijem tebe,
Kogda bogotvorit vse luchsheje vo mne
Postupok kazhdyj tvoj, khotja by i prestupnyj.
No ne ljubi menja: ja vizhu nakonec,
Chto zrjachikh ljubish' ty, togda kak — ja slepec.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Ippolitov-Ivanov: "мною не любима"; further changes may exist not shown. This change may be spurious; it appears to have been pasted onto the score in imslp.


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Note on Transliterations

Show untransliterated (original) text

Text Authorship:

  • by Nikolay Vasilyevich Gerbel (1827 - 1883), no title [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. 149
    • 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):

  • by Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859 - 1935), "Как ты могла сказать, что не любима мной", op. 45 no. 2 (1913) [ voice and piano ], from Сонеты В. Шекспира, no. 2, Moscow: P. Jurgenson [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2021-07-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 103

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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!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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