To me, fair friend, you never can be old
Language: English
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd,
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot [Junes]1 burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceiv'd;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv'd:
For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• L. Crabtree About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Crabtree: "Augusts"
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 Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sonnet CIV - To me, fair friend", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 1 no. 18 (1944-7) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Leslie Crabtree (b. 1941), "Sonnet CIV", 2010 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet CIV", 1866 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Carlos Claudio Spies (1925 - 2020), "To me, fair friend, you never can be old", 1976-7, first performed 1978 [ satb quartet and piano ], from Five Sonnet-Settings, no. 5 [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. 104, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Per me, mio dolce amico, non potrai mai invecchiare", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [
Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-10-15
Line count: 14
Word count: 118
Per me, mio dolce amico, non potrai mai invecchiare
Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English
Per me, mio dolce amico, non potrai mai invecchiare
Perché, com' eri quando in principio il tuo sguardo ho incrociato,
Tale, ancora oggi, la tua bellezza mi appare.
Tre freddi inverni, del vanto di tre estati, i boschi hanno spogliato
tre splendide primavere sono ingiallite in Autunno,
e, nel mutare delle stagioni, ho potuto osservare
tre profumi d'Aprile bruciare nel calore di Giugno,
da quando ti vidi in fiore, e giovane restare.
Ah! Tuttavia la bellezza, come di meridiana un'ombra,
La sua immagine ruba, senza che il moto si noti;
E così la tua dolce immagine, che immutata mi sembra,
E' mutevole pure, ed inganna i miei occhi.
Per questo triste caso tu, epoca non nata, ascolta:
Prima del tuo avvento, l'estate di bellezza è morta.
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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2007-10-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 126