| Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. |
Soneto 18 Día de verano osar llamarte A tu belleza y mesura faltaría. Tiernos brotes de Mayo vientos fuertes sacuden; fin del arriendo del estío. El gran ojo del cielo a veces quema, Otras esconde su rostro ambarino_TN1. Todo lo que es bello, el tiempo merma_TN2 Por el azar o porque es su destino. Pero a tu verano no hay ocaso Y tu belleza nunca se marchita La muerte no ostentará tu paso_TN3 Versos eternos te dan tiempo y vida. Mientras hay vida y ven los ojos_TN4 Mis versos vivirán y tú en ellos. |
Sonnet 130 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head; I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound. I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. |
Soneto 130 Los ojos de mi amada no son soles. Sus labios de coral rojo no son. Blanca la nieve, grises son sus pechos. No rizos de oro, sino de carbón_TN5. Hay rosas damasco, blancas y rojas Pero ninguna veo en sus mofletes_TN6. Hay más placer en mil otros aromas Que en el aliento de ese gollete. Me es muy grato escucharla hablar Pero la música es lo que anhelo_TN7. Nunca he visto a una diosa pasar Mi amada, al andar, pisa_TN8 el suelo. Y aún así, mi amor es exaltado Tanto o más que el más rebuscado_TN9. |
Sonnet 138 When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutored youth, Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue: On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed: But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? O! love's best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love, loves not to have years told: Therefore I lie with her, and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flattered be. |
Soneto 138 Cuando mi amada dice que es pura_TN10 Yo se lo creo, aunque sé que miente, Para que vea en mí esa frescura Que falsas sutilezas no entiende. Fingiendo que ella me cree un chaval_TN11 Aunque bien sabe que no estoy tan verde A sus mentiras doy, sin más, mi aval De ambos lados la verdad se pierde. ¿Pero por qué no dice que no es leal?_TN12 ¿Por qué no digo yo que soy vetusto?_TN13 El amor gusta de fe ciega alardear Y al viejo amor tal nombre no da gusto. En las mentiras ella y yo gozamos Y en nuestra flaqueza disfrutamos_TN14. |
Translator´s Notes:
TN1. “Ambarino” would have never occurred to me had it not been for
the WR Spanish Synonyms Dictionary, while I was looking for a synonym of
“dorado”.
TN2. “merma” is a stretch but I was looking for something to rhyme
with “quema”.
TN3. This verse I am most proud of. It captures the whole meaning of
the Shakesperean verse and sounds really good in Spanish because “paso”
includes the idea of wandering and passing away.
TN4. Obviously I should have used the subjunctive but the syllable
count got in the way.
TN5. I gave a lot of thought to those “wires” and the brevity of the
sonnet verse in Spanish helped me decide for this rather forced metaphor
of coal curls. It sounds strange but since this sonnet is quite funny, I
thought it might work.
TN6. I don´t know if Shakespeare´s Dark Lady was fat but once I
found “gollete”, “mofletes” was the obvious choice. Maybe with this,
I’ve made the sonnet funnier than it was supposed to be. Well...
TN7. “Anhelo” is semantically not what I was looking for but it
rhymes with “suelo”.
TN8. I thought “tread” meant walking in a way that makes the Earth
shake and had a very different verse here but then I found that it just
meant to step.
TN9. The last verse of this sonnet I understand as a whole but not
word for word so I just tried to capture at least part of the meaning
and “rebuscado” seemed like a pretty good match for “false compare” so I
built on that.
TN10. I chose “pura” for “made of truth” because it was easier to
rhyme and also because that used to be a woman´s most valuable
quality/asset, meaning untouched, virgin.
TN11. “Chaval” came about only after it occurred to me to use “aval”
to maintain a legal term similar to “credit”.
TN12. “Leal” is not exactly “unjust”, it´s closer to “unfaithful”
but that’s actually what this is about.
TN13. I was always in search of easy rhymes so when I came across
“vetusto” I was thrilled.
TN14. Shakespeare´s wordplay in this sonnet (as in many others) is
impossible to imitate so I just tried to be as ingenious as I could with
the Spanish I know but I obviously fall short.
Academic
year 2007/2008
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Gabriela Harsulescu
gahar@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press