Nous désirons voir les créatures les plus belles se multiplier (Guizot) (The LiederNet Archive: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)

Translation by François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787 - 1874)

From fairest creatures we desire...

Language: English

Available translation(s): ITA

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
  Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
  To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 1 [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 Michael G. Cunningham (b. 1937), "From fairest creature", op. 87 no. ? (1979), published c1980 [high voice and piano], from Shakespeare Songs [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Dennis M. Farrell , "Sonnet I", 1965, first performed 1966 [tenor or soprano and piano], from To a Soldier Dying Young [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by A. Oscar Haügland , "Sonnet No. 1", 1981, first performed 1982 [tenor or soprano and viola], from Three Shakespeare Songs [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Mamie Grace Leonard , "From fairest creatures", 1957 [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Stig Gustav Schönberg , "From fairest creatures we desire increase", op. 44 (1966), first performed 1968 [baritone and piano], from Shakespeare Songs [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet I", 1864 [high voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by David Winkler , "Sonnet I", 1982 [SATB quartet and piano], from Cycle for Several Voices and Piano, no. 1 [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by Pierre Jean Jouve (1887 - 1976) , copyright © GER ITA ; composed by Serge Baudo.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist FRE FRE ITA ; composed by Paul Coenen.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Karl Joseph Simrock (1802 - 1876) FRE FRE ITA ; composed by Carl Joachim Ludwig.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Franz Alfons Wolpert (1917 - 1978) FRE FRE ITA ; composed by Franz Alfons Wolpert.
Also set in Serbian (Српски), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist FRE FRE GER ITA ; composed by Tugomir Vidanović.

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 1, first published 1863
FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 1, first published 1857
GER German (Deutsch) (Ludwig Reinhold Walesrode) , no title, appears in William Shakspeare's sämmtliche Gedichte, in 1. Sonette, no. 1, first published 1840
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Text added to the website: 2007-10-07 00:00:00
Last modified: 2014-06-16 10:02:29
Line count: 14
Word count: 106

Nous désirons voir les créatures les...

Language: French (Français) after the English

Nous désirons voir les créatures les plus belles se multiplier 
afin que la rose de la beauté ne meure jamais, 
et qu'au moment où les plus avancées tombent sous les coups du Temps,
leurs tendres héritières puissent relever leur mémoire; 
mais toi, tu es fiancée à tes propres yeux et à leur éclat, 
tu nourris la flamme de ton flambeau d'une huile intérieure, 
tu produis la famine là où règne l'abondance, 
tu es ta propre ennemie, tu es trop cruelle envers toi-même. 
Toi qui fais maintenant le nouvel ornement du monde, 
toi qui annonces seule le glorieux printemps, 
tu enterres dans son bouton ta satisfaction; douce
avare, tu gaspilles par ta lésinerie. 
  Aie compassion du monde, sans quoi, vorace que tu es, 
  tu te joindras au tombeau pour dévorer ce qui est dû au monde.

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship

by François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787 - 1874), no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 1, first published 1863 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on

a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 1

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

[ None yet in the database ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Text added to the website: 2009-01-21 00:00:00
Last modified: 2014-06-16 10:03:05
Line count: 14
Word count: 135