Sonnet 2: Forty wintersWhen forty winters shall beseige thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held: Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days, To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise. How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use, If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,' Proving his beauty by succession thine! This were to be new made when thou art old, And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.William Shakespeare |
January 2012 |
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The motive for this landscape was loosely inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's "View of Arles with Trees in Blossom" (1988), with an older bare tree in the foreground set against a blooming background. The central image of the poem integrated into the landscape is the deep trenches in thy beauty's field, but at the core of this attempt at a translation lies colour: the possibility of seeing something warm while feeling it cold. |
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