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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787 - 1874)

From fairest creatures we desire...
Language: English 
Our translations:  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)

Text 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]
  • 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]
  • 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]
  • by Mamie Grace Leonard , "From fairest creatures", 1957 [sung text not yet checked]
  • 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]
  • by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet I", 1864 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by David Winkler , "Sonnet I", 1982 [ SATB quartet and piano ], from Cycle for Several Voices and Piano, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by Pierre Jean Jouve (1887 - 1976) , copyright © ; composed by Serge Baudo.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Paul Coenen.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Karl Joseph Simrock (1802 - 1876) ; composed by Carl Joachim Ludwig.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Franz Alfons Wolpert (1917 - 1978) ; composed by Franz Alfons Wolpert.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
  • Also set in Serbian (Српски), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Tugomir Vidanović.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

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]

This text was added to the website: 2007-10-07
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)

Text 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
    • Go to the text page.

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]

This text was added to the website: 2009-01-21
Line count: 14
Word count: 135

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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