Oh ! comment pourrais-je chanter tes mérites avec convenance

Translation by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873)

O, how thy worth with manners may I sing

Language: English

Our translations: ITA

O, how thy worth with manners may I sing,
When thou art all the better part of me?
What can mine own praise to mine own self bring?
And what is 't but mine own when I praise thee?
Even for this, let us divided live,
And our dear love lose name of single one,
That by this separation I may give
That due to thee which thou deservest alone.
O absence! what a torment wouldst thou prove,
Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave,
To entertain the time with thoughts of love,
Which time and thoughts so sweetly doth deceive,
  And that thou teachest how to make one twain,
  By praising him here who doth hence remain!

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 39 [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 Janine Mehrtens , "O, how thy worth with manners may I sing", 1992 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XXXIX", 1865 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in Latvian (Latviešu valoda), a translation by Vizma Belševica (1931 - 2005) , copyright © ; composed by Pauls Miervaldis Dambis.
- 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-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 39, first published 1857
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 120

Oh ! comment pourrais‑je chanter tes...

Language: French (Français) after the English

Oh ! comment pourrais-je chanter tes mérites avec convenance, 
quand tu es la meilleure partie de moi-même ? 
Que me servirait de faire mon propre éloge, 
et ne fais-je pas mon éloge en faisant le tien ?
Ne fût-ce que pour cela, vivons donc séparés ; 
que notre tendre affection ne soit plus l'identité ; 
et, grâce à cette séparation, 
je pourrai te payer le tribut que toi seul mérites.
Ô absence ! quelle torture tu serais, 
si tes loisirs amers ne me permettaient pas 
de charmer le temps par la pensée de mon amour, 
et de tromper dans cette douce rêverie le temps et ma pensée,
  Si tu ne savais faire deux êtres d'un seul 
  pour faire louer celui qui reste par celui qui s'en va !

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873), no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 39, first published 1857 [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. 39
- 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: 2010-08-17
Line count: 14
Word count: 121