Thursday, September 12, 2013

The routes of [Sonnet] 66

The Oxquarry Books web site (among many, many others) carries the text of Sonnet 66, helpfully glossed and given to us in several variants including the 1609 Quarto Version.

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
   Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
   Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

You've read Manfred Pfister's article from 2004 on Continental European repurposings/interpretations of this sonnet.  Here's a 2010  article where he updates his research, extending it to English literature.  What do you think of his new findings?

Here is a link to the Shostakovich piece, using Pasternak's translation and also sometimes performed in English.  

Video of the Wolf Biermann piece is here.

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