I "translated" Shakespeare sonnet 121 - because change is a good as a rest

Sometimes turning your mind into something completely different gives us respite from stress of everyday troubles and pressures. In my case, I decided to convert Shakespeare’s sonnet 121 into more modern english. Sonnet 121 should have subtitle “on hypocrisy” and is truly amazing.

Here is the original:

Sonet 121

'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, 

When not to be, receives reproach of being,

And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed, 

Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing. 

For why should others' false adulterate eyes

Give salutation to my sportive blood? 

Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,

Which in their wills count bad what I think good? 

No, I am that I am, and they that level 

At my abuses, reckon up their own, 

I may be straight though they themselves be bevel; 

By their rank thoughts, my deeds must not be shown 

Unless this general evil they maintain, 

All men are bad and in their badness reign.

William Shakespeare

1609

And here is my translation, in prose, obviously, to slightly more modern english -

Reading the sonnet is not easy for contemporary reader like myself, with no prior knowledge of XVIth century elizabethan english. Only when text is understood, going back to the original allows to better appreciate Shakespeare’s genius.

In life it is better to do something wicked,

Than to suffer judgement of others about it, 

Especially when being innocent

Doesn’t stop others from declaring you guilty. 

We refrain from acting in ways that give us pleasure,

And we do so not because we choose so,

But because we are pressured by public opinion. 

Why do people so keenly focus, with their shifty eyes,

on my hot-blooded carnal escapades? 

And why weak people spy on my weaknesses? 

Such people judge my exploits as bad,

While there is nothing really wicked in my actions. 

I am the person that I am, and those who criticise

My doings minimise their own misdeeds. 

I am candid, even if they are dishonest. 

My deeds should not be seen through

The lenses of their disgusting thoughts,

Unless we believe the lie they put forward:

That every person is bad and evil reigns supreme.