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

The forward violet thus did I chide
Language: English 
The forward violet thus did I chide:
Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
If not from my love's breath? The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd.
The lily I condemned for thy hand,
And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair;
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
One blushing shame, another white despair;
A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both,
And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath;
But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.
      More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,
      But sweet, or colour it had stol'n from thee.

About the headline (FAQ)

Note that this "sonnet" has fifteen lines.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 99 [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 XCIX", 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. 99, first published 1857


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-12
Line count: 15
Word count: 125

Фиалке ранней я с укором говорил
Language: Russian (Русский)  after the English 
[Фиалке ранней я]1 с укором говорил:
«Где ты похитила свой аромат небесный,
Как не из вздохов той, кому мой отдан пыл,
А пурпур на покров из вен моей прелестной?»
Я лилию корил в покраже белизны
Прекрасных рук твоих, а мак — волос каскада
Что ж до трех роз, то — в прах стыдом низлс
Они чуть рдели вкруг, не подымая взгляда:
Одна — пылая вся, другая — побледнев,
А третья — всем даря чужие ароматы,
Тогда как червь, давно свой сдерживавший гнев,
Уже точил ее, дождавшися расплаты.
Поверь, что я цветка такого не видал,
Который с уст твоих свой запах бы не брал!

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 Ippolitov-Ivanov: "И я фиалке так"; further changes exist not shown above.

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

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. 99
    • 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), "Фиалке ранней я с укором говорил", op. 45 no. 4 (1913) [ voice and piano ], from Сонеты В. Шекспира, no. 4, 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: 104

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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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