Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare Translation to Modern English

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Shall I compare you to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: You are more lovely and more moderate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, Harsh winds disturb the delicate flower buds of May.

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: And summer doesn’t last long enough.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, Sometimes the sun is too hot,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And its golden face is often dimmed by clouds.

And every fair from fair sometime declines, All beautiful things eventually become less beautiful,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; Either by the experiences of life or by the passing of time.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade But your eternal beauty won’t fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor lose any of its quality.

Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, And you will never die,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest: As you will live on in my enduring poetry.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, As long as there are people still alive to read poems,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee. This sonnet will live, and you will live in it.