Ne laisse donc pas la main rugueuse de l'hiver défigurer

Translation by François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787 - 1874)

Then let not winter's ragged hand deface

Language: English

Available translation(s): ITA

Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,
In thee thy summer, ere thou be distilled:
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed.
That use is not forbidden usury,
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
That's for thy self to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one;
Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity?
  Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair
  To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship:

by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 6 [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), "Then let not Winter's ragged hand", op. 112 no. ? (1985) [medium-high voice and piano], from Shakespeare Sonnets, Set 2 [
text not verified
]
by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet VI", 1862-4. [medium voice, piano] [
text not verified
]
by David Winkler , "Sonnet VI", 1982 [SATB quartet and piano], from Cycle for Several Voices and Piano, no. 6. [
text not verified
]

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, from Oeuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 6, published 1863
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , title unknown, copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, from Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 6, published 1857

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2007-10-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 110

Ne laisse donc pas la main rugueuse de...

Language: French (Français) after the English

Ne laisse donc pas la main rugueuse de l'hiver défigurer 
en toi l'été avant que tu sois distillée; 
parfume quelque flacon, emplis quelque lieu
du trésor de la beauté avant de te suicider. 
Ce n'est pas une usure défendue 
que de faire des prêts qui rendent heureux ceux qui payent volontiers leurs dettes, 
c'est à toi d'enfanter un autre toi-même; 
dix fois heureuse si tu en enfantes dix pour un, 
toi-même tu serais dix fois plus heureuse que tu ne l'es 
si dix enfants nés de toi te reproduisaient dix fois; 
que te ferait alors la mort si tu t'en allais 
en te survivant dans ta postérité? 
  Ne sois pas obstinée, tu es infiniment trop belle pour servir 
  de conquête à la mort et pour faire des vers tes héritiers.

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship:

by François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787 - 1874), no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 6, 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. 6

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: 2009-01-22
Line count: 14
Word count: 130