Sonnet XXX | When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

When to the sessions of sweet silent...

Language: English

Our translations: ITA

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.

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Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 30 [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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Sonnet XXX - "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought"", 2002 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from Five Sonnets, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sonnet XXX - When to the sessions", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 1 no. 4 (1944-7) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Leslie Crabtree (b. 1941), "Sonnet XXX", 2001 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by David Leo Diamond (1915 - 2005), "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought", 1964, published 1967 [ high voice and piano ], from We Two, no. 9, New York : Southern [sung text checked 1 time]
by Bernard van Dieren (1887 - 1936), "Sonnet XXX", 1916 [ baritone and orchestra ], from Diaphony (Diafonia), no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought", 2000, first performed 2001 [ baritone and piano ], from Love's Pilgrimage -- 5 songs for Baritone and Piano, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
by Alan Hovhaness (1911 - 2000), no title, op. 31 no. 2 (1939), published 1942? [ voice and piano ], from 2 Shakespeare Sonnets, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought", 1873-82, published 1887 [ voice and piano ], from Four Sonnets of Shakespeare, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XXX", 1864-5 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in Japanese (日本語), a translation by Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859 - 1935) ; composed by Elliot Weisgarber.
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Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Samuil Yakovlevich Marschak (1887 - 1964) , no title, appears in Шекспир Уильям - сонеты (Shekspir Uil'jam - sonety) = Sonnets of William Shakespeare, no. 30 ; composed by Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky.
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Other 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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 116