by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by Josef Václav Sládek (1845 - 1912)
The expense of spirit in a waste of...
Language: English
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action: and till action, lust
Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme;
A bliss in proof, -- and prov'd, a very woe;
Before, a joy propos'd; behind a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 129 [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 CXXIX - Th'expense of Spirit", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 2 no. 2 (1945) [ SATB chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Passmore (b. 1954), "The expense of spirit in a waste of shame" [ mezzo-soprano and piano ], from Seven Dark Lady Sonnets , no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet CXXIX", 1866 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek)
- CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Sonet 129"
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 129, first published 1857
- GER German (Deutsch) (Richard Flatter) , appears in Die Fähre, Englische Lyrik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, first published 1936
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-11
Line count: 14
Word count: 110
Tracením ducha v moři hanebnosti
Language: Czech (Čeština) after the English
Tracením ducha v moři hanebnosti
je chlípnost v činu; než se uloká,
jest křivopřísežná a plna ukrutnosti,
vražedná, surová a divoká.
Když zkojena, tou ukojí se chvílí,
nad rozum ždána, nenáviděna
pak nad rozum jak vnadidlo, jež mýlí;
jen mžik, pak uštve v muka šílená.
Šílená v ždání, v požívání též,
ždajíc i trávíc hltavě svůj plen,
slast v okoušení, pak bolestná lež,
dřív blaha vidinou, pak prázdný sen —
to vše ví svět, však nikdo nevystříhá
se nebe, pod nímž toto peklo číhá.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
Based on:
- a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 129
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 page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2020-04-19
Line count: 14
Word count: 84