Since it’s summer, and a very hot one at that, we thought we’d share a poem about summer with you. It’s a sonnet by William Shakespeare. Below the poem you will find definitions for some of the more difficult words and Chinese and Spanish translations; above you can watch a video of someone reading it. Enjoy:

Sonnet 18

by William Shakespeare

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 dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

shall = should, thee = you, thou = you, art = are, hath = has, thy = your, owest = owe, wander’st = wander, growest = grow

18.

許吾將卿比做明媚夏日？

卿更可愛更知溫柔克制：

五月嫩蕊常遭狂風摧遲，

夏之賃期*則又苦短難滯。

有時九天之眼烈焰狂悍，

時常其金容則受蔽黯淡，

世之美者，其美類皆存難，

有時不測，有時歲月自然；

然卿之永恆夏將不凋殘，

卿之所美者，卿永擁其屬，

當卿隨此永恆詩篇*殖展，

冥神亦難誇卿遊其死谷：

但許人可吐息，目可識丁，

此詩即活，且賦生命與卿。

XVIII

¿A un día de verano compararte?

Más hermosura y suavidad posees.

Tiembla el brote de mayo bajo el viento

y el estío no dura casi nada.

A veces demasiado brilla el ojo

solar, y otras su tez de oro se apaga;

toda belleza alguna vez declina,

ajada por la suerte o por el tiempo.

Pero eterno será el verano tuyo.

No perderás la gracia, ni la Muerte

se jactará de ensombrecer tus pasos

cuando crezcas en versos inmortales.

Vivirás mientras alguien vea y sienta

y esto pueda vivir y te dé vida.