by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873)
Those parts of thee that the world's eye...
Language: English
Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend;
All tongues -- the voice of souls -- give thee that due,
Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend.
Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd;
But those same tongues, that give thee so thine own,
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that in guess they measure by thy deeds;
Then -- churls -- their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,
The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 69 [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 Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet LXIX", 1865 [ low voice and piano ] [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. 69, first published 1857
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 123
Ce que les yeux du monde voient de toi
Language: French (Français) after the English
Ce que les yeux du monde voient de toi, n'a rien que la pensée intime puisse réformer : toutes les langues, qui sont voix de l'âme, te rendent cet hommage, forcées à la vérité par l'aveu même de tes ennemis. Ta personne extérieure est donc couronnée de la louange extérieure ; mais ces mêmes langues, qui t'accordent ainsi ce qui t'est dû, étouffent cet éloge sous des exclamations toutes différentes, quand la critique se porte au delà de ce qui s'offre aux yeux. Le monde veut juger la beauté de ton âme, et, dans ses conjectures, il la mesure à tes actions ; alors, quelque favorables que te soient ses yeux, ses pensées malveillantes prêtent à ta fleur charmante l'odeur de la ronce nauséabonde. Mais pourquoi son parfum n'est-il pas apprécié comme son éclat ? La raison, c'est qu'elle devient commune.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873), no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 69, 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. 69
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: 137