Textuality » 4A Interacting
LET ME NOT TO THE MARRIAGE
English | Italiano |
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments; love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. | Non sia mai ch'io ponga impedimenti All'unione di anime fedeli; Amore non è Amore Se muta quando scopre un mutamento O tende a svanire quando l'altro s'allontana.
Oh no! Amore è un faro sempre fisso Che sovrasta la tempesta e non vacilla mai; Il cui valore è sconosciuto, benché nota la distanza.
Amore non è soggetto al Tempo, pur se rosee Labbra e gote Amore non muta in poche ore o settimane, Ma impavido resiste al giorno estremo del giudizio:
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Sonnet 116 belongs to the collection of Sonnet's, from Sonnet 1 to Sonnet 126, that were mainly addressed to a man, the Fair Youth.
Considering the title "LET ME NOT TO THE MARRIAGE" you can see that there is no verb, so it is difficult to make an right impression of what the sonnet will be about.
Right from the start you have as words as the title, that underlines that it belongs to the Shakespeare's collection of sonnets.
The function of the first quatrain is to explain Shakespeare's thoughts about love. He will not "Admit impediments" on the marriage of "true minds" and he explains you what true love about is. True love is constant and strong, and will not "alter when it alteration finds" or be less strong when the person who is loved goes away.
In the second quatrain the function is to proclaim that true love is permanent and "an ever-fixed mark" which will survive any crisis. He uses the metaphor of the tempests to underline that true love can withstand all, "that looks on tempests and is never shaken". Love is also like a "star" that shows you the right way and "whose worth's" is unknown until his absence.
The third quatrain has the function to show you that love is stronger against Time. However powerful Time is, Shakespeare is certain that love is still stronger. "Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks - Within his bending sickle's compass come." The reference to the sickle shows just how much of a threat Shakespeare views Time. The poet uses here also some classical stereotypes of courtly love sonnets. Love cannot be measured in "brief hours and weeks"; love is eternal; it "bears it out even to the edge of doom."
In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is mistaken about what love should be, or If what he has written is proven to be wrong he "never writ, nor no man ever loved." He underlines the impossibility to love somebody if his statements are not true. The word never is used to modify a verb and it means "not at any time" and ever is an adverb and it means "at any time". The function in the final couplet of never is to underline that the poet has not written something about love and that has not loved, in all time, anybody.