But do thy worst to steal thyself away,
For term of life thou art assured mine;
And life no longer than thy love will stay,
For it depends upon that love of thine.
Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs,
When in the least of them my life hath end.
I see a better state to me belongs
Than that which on thy humour doth depend:
Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind,
Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie.
O! what a happy title do I find,
Happy to have thy love, happy to die!
But what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot?
Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 92 [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 XCII", 1863-6 [ medium 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.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 92, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 120
Kak ni zhelala b ty ukryt'sja ot menja, Poka ja zhiv — mojej ty byt' ne perestanesh'; Ja zh budu zhit', poka zhiva ljubov' tvoja, Kotoroju davno menja k sebe ty manish'. Itak, mne nuzhdy net strashit'sja novykh bed, Kotorykh uzh nichto na svete ne povysit; K tomu zh v mojej sud'be chut' viden buri sled, A ot tvoikh ona kaprizov ne zavisit. No ty ne ogorchish' nevernost'ju svojej Togo, kto perezhit' jee ne v sostojan'e. Da, ja vdvojne schastliv v ljubvi k tebe mojej Jeshche tem, chto ona zhivet v mojem dykhan'e. No vse zhe jest' i tut durnaja storona: Ved' ja mogu ne znat', chto ty mne neverna.
About the headline (FAQ)
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Note on TransliterationsShow 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. 92
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 ни желала б ты укрыться от меня", op. 45 no. 5 (1913) [ voice and piano ], from Сонеты В. Шекспира, no. 5, 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: 110