Monday, September 27, 2010

Hear Ye, Hear Ye.......

Remember when I showed you this?



This is a page from the Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack  pg. 175 in the main catalog.  One of the pages has text on it.  I emailed Stampin' Up! to ask what it was.  They had to do a little research and a few days ago they got back to me. 

Apparently, I asked a hard question.  It seems hard to believe I would be the only person asking this question, but then again, I'm curious about things other people aren't.  Curiosity killed the cat you know.

Anyway, the text is this:

Shakespeare Sonnet 83: I Never Saw That You Did Painting Need


I never saw that you did painting need,



And therefore to your fair no painting set;


I found, or thought I found, you did exceed


The barren tender of a poet's debt:


And therefore have I slept in your report,


That you yourself, being extant, well might show


How far a modern quill doth come too short,


Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.


This silence for my sin you did impute,


Which shall be most my glory being dumb;


For I impair not beauty being mute,


When others would give life, and bring a tomb.


There lives more life in one of your fair eyes


Than both your poets can in praise devise.
 
 
Huh..........what?
 
 
Sonnet 83: Translation to modern English
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I've never thought that representations of you need elaboration, so I haven't described your beauty in elaborate verse. I could see - or thought I could see - that you were above the skills of any poet. Therefore, I've made no effort to represent you so that you yourself, by virtue of your very existence, would be able to demonstrate how far short modern verse would come in representing quality - the real quality that you possess. You regarded my silence as a fault, but I'm proud of it because my silence doesn't detract from your beauty, whereas others destroy it by trying to bring it to life. There's more life in one of your beautiful eyes than all of your poets can invent in their praise of you.
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I'm really not up on my Shakespeare.  I had to do a little research.  This is one of a series of poems and it was written about a man.  For some reason that surprised me. 

Anyway, I thought I'd pass along my little tidbit of Stampin' Up! trivia there for you. 

Now go ye forthe and doth thee create!

Good tidings and God's blessings to ye, b.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so impressed by this! I love Shakespeare and now am more inclined to buy this DSP just to have it! Thank you for inquiring and getting an answer for other curious minds.

mary noble said...

I have this DSP and it is neat to know that it is from Shakespeare - so now we can become more educated about Shakespeare while we play....thanks for the interpretation/translation. I always had a difficult time understanding what he meant. Mary L