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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873)

Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to...
Language: English 
Our translations:  ITA
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
That they behold, and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks,
Be anchor'd in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?
Why should my heart think that a several plot,
Which my heart knows the wide world's common place?
Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,
To put fair truth upon so foul a face?
    In things right true my heart and eyes have err'd,
    And to this false plague are they now transferr'd. 

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 137 [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 CXXXVII", 1866 [  SATB chorus and piano ], partson [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. 137, first published 1857
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-13
Line count: 14
Word count: 124

Ô toi, aveugle fou, Amour, que fais‑tu à...
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Ô toi, aveugle fou, Amour, que fais-tu à mes yeux, 
pour qu'ils regardent ainsi sans voir ce qu'ils voient ? 
Ils savent ce qu'est la beauté, ils voient où elle se trouve ;
pourtant pour ce qu'il y a de meilleur ils prennent ce qu'il y a de pire.
Si mes yeux, corrompus par un regard plus que partial, 
sont ainsi mouillés dans une baie que sillonnent toutes les proues, 
pourquoi as-tu forgé d'illusions l'ancre 
où est lié le jugement de mon cœur ?
Pourquoi mon cœur considère-t-il comme un parc réservé 
ce qu'il sait bien être la place publique de l'univers ? 
Pourquoi mes yeux voyant cela disent-ils : cela n'est pas, 
et revêtent-ils d'éclatante pureté une face si noire ?
  C'est que mon cœur et mes yeux ont perdu le chemin du vrai 
  et sont maintenant égarés par une fausseté fatale.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873), no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 137, 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. 137
    • 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: 2010-08-20
Line count: 14
Word count: 137

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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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