Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Shakespeare's Sonnets in Latin
Among the treasures at St. Louis University's Latin Teaching Materials web site, you can find Shakespeare's sonnets translated into Latin by Alfred Thomas Barton. Here is Sonnet 73, first in Shakespeare's English, then in Barton's Latin:
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That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth from the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed by that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
In me, care, potes velut anni noscere tempus
Lutea cum pendens arbore rara coma est,
Vel potius cum nulla, at frigore nuda tremiscunt
Bracchia, nuper avis templa canora sono.
Tale meae videas lumen pallere diei
Pallet ad occiduas vespere quale plagas;
Quod nox furva brevi totum, mors altera, tollit
Omniaque obsignans inde secuta quies.
Dispicias in me tantum vitale caloris
In cinere est quantum relliquiisque foci,
Qua rubet exiguo languescens igne favilla
Ab nutrimentis interitura suis.
Illa vides, et amas auctis affectibus omne
Vnde recedendum post breve tempus erit.