If there be nothing new, but that which...
Language: English
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,
Which labouring for invention bear amiss
The second burthen of a former child!
O! that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done!
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame;
Wh'r we are mended, or wh'r better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
O! sure I am the wits of former days,
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
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 LIX", 1865, published [1878] [ medium voice and piano ], in Sonnets of Shakespeare, Selected from a complete Setting and Miscellaneous Songs, ed. Natalie Macfarren, London : Stanley Lucas, Weber [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 110
Se non c'è nulla di nuovo, ma tutto ciò...
Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English
Se non c'è nulla di nuovo, ma tutto ciò che è reale
è già stato, come si inganna il nostro cervello,
che, sforzandosi di creare, si troverà ad abortire
di un figlio precedente il secondo fardello!
Oh si potesse trovare, guardando al passato,
lungo anche cinquecento percorsi del sole,
un libro antico con il tuo volto già raffigurato,
Ed ogni idea già scritta in parole!
E così scoprire cosa il vecchio mondo ebbe a dire
sulla tua figura, meravigliosamente armoniosa;
Se abbiamo fatto progressi o se è il passato è migliore
o se il volgere dei tempi sia la stessa cosa.
Io ho certezza che gli ingegni passati,
solo soggetti peggiori hanno lodato ammirati.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2024 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2024-12-25
Line count: 14
Word count: 114