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Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood; Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood; Make glad [and]1 sorry seasons as thou fleets, As do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time, To the wide world and [all]2 her fading sweets; But I forbid thee one most heinous crime: O! carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow, Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen; Him in thy course untainted do allow For beauty's pattern to succeeding men. Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong, My love shall in my verse ever live young.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 Bachlund: "the"
2 omitted by Bachlund.
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 19 [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 XIX - "Devouring Time"", 2002 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from Five Sonnets, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Miriam Gideon (1906 - 1996), "Sonnet XIX: Devouring Time", 1949 [ voice and piano, or voice and trumpet and string quartet (or string orchestra) ], from Sonnets from Shakespeare, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XIX", 1862-5 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Flavio Testi (b. 1923), "cantata seconda (devouring time)", op. 24 (1972), published 1973, first performed 1973 [ tenor, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, and piano ], Milan: Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 19, first published 1857
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 19, first published 1863
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "O Tempo divorante, spunta al leone gli artigli", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- RUS Russian (Русский) (Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky) , "Сонет 19", written 1914
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-05-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 117
O Tempo divorante, spunta al leone gli artigli,
fa' che la terra divori la sua dolce prole,
al morso della tigre i denti aguzzi togli
e nel suo stesso sangue ardi la Fenice immortale.
Alterna nel tuo volo stagioni liete e infelici,
fa' tutto ciò che vuoi, col tuo passo veloce,
a tutto il vasto mondo e alle sue gioie fugaci;
Ma ti proibisco un delitto, fra tutti il più feroce;
Oh! Che le ore non graffino la fronte del mio amato,
no, non segnarvi solchi con il tuo antico pennello;
lui, nella tua corsa, lascialo intoccato,
agli uomini futuri, di bellezza modello.
Ma se pur lo farai, Tempo, a tuo dispetto
Il mio amato vivrà, nei miei versi, sempre giovane e intatto.
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. 19
This text was added to the website: 2007-05-10
Line count: 14
Word count: 123