Genre Three -- Model Translations

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream"

Monologue from Act 1 Scene 1

Shakespearean English:

HELENA

How happy some o'er other some can be!

Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.

But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;

He will not know what all but he do know:

And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,

So I, admiring of his qualities:

Things base and vile, folding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

So the boy Love is perjured every where:

For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,

He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night

Pursue her; and for this intelligence

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his sight thither and back again.

Modern English:

HELENA

Some people just get all of the happiness! 

Everybody in Athens thinks we are equally pretty! 

But who cares? Demetrius doesn’t agree;

He is the only person who doesn’t see it:

And while he is so obsessed with Hermia’s beauty here I am so obsessed with him.

Even the ugliest, meanest things become beautiful if you love the person.

Love is not based on sight, but based on the soul.

That’s why Cupid is shown to be blind in paintings.

Cupid has no sense of good judgement.

He can fly, but he is blind.  He scrambles around so quickly and restlessly just like a child, always making mistakes.  He is just like a child cheating at games, Cupid is naughty in everything he does

Because before Demetrius discovered Hermia he swore to me that he loved me and would never love anyone else ever again!  But as soon as he saw Hermia all of these promises crumbled into nothing.

I know! I will go warn him that Hermia and Lysander are going to run away!  This way, he will go chasing after her.  I can follow him and this way I can hang around him even more!  The hurt this might cause me is worth it just to be able to look at him!

  

Monologue From Act 2 Scene 1

Shakespearean English:

PUCK

Thou speak'st aright;

I am that merry wanderer of the night.

I jest to Oberon and make him smile

When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,

Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:

And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,

In very likeness of a roasted crab,

And when she drinks, against her lips I bob

And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,

Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;

Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,

And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;

And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,

And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear

A merrier hour was never wasted there.

But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.

Modern English:  

PUCK

That’s right!

I am that creeping nighttime walker that you are talking about.

I joke to Oberon to make him laugh and smile by teasing fat horses. I trick them by neighing like a female pony:

And sometime I hide in old women’s soup bowls and bob just like a crab, so that when she takes a sip I bump her lips so that the liquid spills all down her wrinkly neck!

I make the most serious of aunts, telling the saddest tale, think that there is a three-legged stool sitting there but when she goes to sit down I snatch the stool away, making her fall and cry out, coughing!  Then everybody around her holds their sides and laughs and has a great time of making fun of her.  Those are the best times.

Hey, look out! Here comes Oberon.

Monologue from Act 2 Scene 2

Shakespearean English:

HERMIA

[Awaking] Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!

Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!

Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:

Methought a serpent eat my heart away,

And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.

Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!

What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?

Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;

Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.

No? then I well perceive you all not nigh

Either death or you I'll find immediately.

Modern English:

HERMIA

[Waking] Help me, Lysander, help me! Do your best to get this snake off of my chest!  Oh my, what a scare! What a dream I just had!  Lysander, look at how I am shaking in fear:  I thought a snake was eating my heart away, and you sat smiling at what he was doing!  Lysander! What, are you gone?  Lysander, lord!  What, can’t you hear me?  Gone?  Not a sound, gone without telling me?  Please, speak to me if you can hear me, speak! Please, for love’s sake!  I’m so scared that I’m about to faint! No?  Then I guess you aren’t close by.  Either death or you I’ll find immediately.