I recently saw a very interesting semi-classic Hindi Film, named Eklavya. The movies starts with Shakespeare Sonnet (and ends with though provoking
Sankrit Sholka) . In the film the king recites the love poem for his dying queen. I have heard about the sonnet and it seems a popular in literate class of India. I wonder why ?
I found the Sonnet in the book of classic poems I have. Here is the original sonnet, sonnet paraphrased in current English, Followed by my commentary. Can someone translate this in to Gujarati or Hindi ?
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 oft' 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 wanderest 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.
Paraphrase:
Should I compare thee to a summer day?
You are prettier and more amenable:
In summer high winds shake buds from trees of May,
And summer is really far too short:
the sun sometimes is way too hot,
And often the suns face is covered with clouds:
making what should be a pleasant day unpleasant
by natural course nature is unpredictable and will end,
But your life shall never fade
Nor will your beauty ever be lost:
And death shall never reach you and take you into darkness
Because with these lines that I write:
As long as there are men alive to read my poems,
Forever you will have life in my words.
Commentary and Interpretation:
In this sonnet, Shakespeare asks if he
should compare his lady or his love (or perhaps just some person he admires) to
a summer day, but decides not a good idea to since, as he notes, that his
subject is far more lovely and predictable. He says it would not be a good
comparison, because summer is hot, unpredictable and sometimes unkind. He then
tell his subject that as long has there are men who can read his poems, his
subject will be forever alive.
1) Is he egoist by saying to his lover that as long as my poems are read you will be remembered !
2) Is the lover a female or .. a male ? Shakespeare does not specify that ! I do not know anything about Shakespeare's orientation.
3) I was born in the Western India where temperature in summers shoot up to anything between 45 ~ 49 degree C, Summers day mean an unofficial curfew violating which may mean untimely death by heatstroke. So my first reflex was why does Shakespeare compare his lover with Summer ? So the translator or transliterator you may replace the Summer ( Grishma ) to the Spring ( Vasant).
Translation in Gujarati/Hindi
