Video images are from a rare ORIGINAL 1609 EDITION of Shake-speares Sonnets held by the British Library. It is one of only thirteen copies in existence. Images are provided courtesy of the Octavo Corporation.
For more information on all the sonnets visit [ Ссылка ]
Modernized Spelling and Punctuation for Sonnet 55:
Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
Simplified Modern English Translation
Neither marble nor monuments plated with gold,
honoring worldly princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme.
In fact, you shall shine more brightly in these sonnets
than old forgotten monuments ravaged with time and neglect.
Although ruinous wars can destroy carefully crafted statues,
and battles take their toll on elaborate stone temples,
Mars - the god of war himself - will be powerless to erase
this permanent record of your memory.
In spite of death and the universal threat of oblivion
you will always be remembered; your praise will always have a place,
even in the eyes of all posterity
until which time the world itself will end.
So until the Judgment when you yourself arise,
you live in this, and dwell forever in lovers' eyes.
