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How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December's bareness everywhere! And yet this time remov'd was summer's time, The teeming autumn, big with rich increase, Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime, Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease: Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me But hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit; For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, And thou away, the very birds are mute; Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.
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Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 97 [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 Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sonnet XCVII - How like the winter", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 1 no. 15 (1944-7) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968), "How like a Winter", 2016, first performed 2016 [ soprano, cello and piano ], from Summer to Winter, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968), "Winter's Near", 2008, first performed 2008 [ tenor, french horn and piano ], from The Generation of Love, Peters Edition [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XCVII", 1864-5 [ medium voice or high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ludmilla Ulehla (b. 1923), "How like a winter hath my absence been" [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Elizabeth Walton Vercoe (b. 1941), "How like a winter", 1994 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Varieties of Amorous Experience, no. 3, confirmed with composer's website [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Polish (Polski), a translation by Maciej Słomczyński (1922 - 1998) ; composed by Tadeusz Baird.
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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. 97, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "E' stata la mia assenza simile a freddo inverno", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Barbara Miller
This text was added to the website: 2005-08-06
Line count: 14
Word count: 107
E' stata la mia assenza simile a freddo inverno, La mia assenza da te, gioia dell’anno che muore! Freddo ho sentito, e ho visto oscuro il giorno, E di Dicembre, attorno, lo squallore! Eppure quei giorni d’assenza erano tempo estivo, E già l’Autunno fecondo il suo frutto copioso, che della primavera è il fardello lascivo, portava nel grembo ormai vedovo dell’amato sposo: Ma quella ricca progenie a me appariva, solo promessa di orfani, senza padre frutti, poiché la gioiosa estate te sola accompagnava, e, te lontana, stanno anche gli uccelli zitti. O se pur cantano, è con sì triste suono Che scolora il fogliame, temendo l’inverno vicino.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2007 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 97
This text was added to the website: 2007-01-16
Line count: 14
Word count: 107