Romeo and Juliet Soliloquies Translated
Romeo & Juliet Soliloquy 1
Act One Scene Five: O, she doth teach the torches to
burn bright (Spoken by Romeo)
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
Soliloquy 1 translation:
Romeo stared. She was so beautiful that she made the
torches around the hall appear to grow dim. She was a
dazzling jewel illuminating the dark night sky. She
stood out from the other girls like a snowy dove in a
field of crows. She ... Oh. he could never find the
words to describe her. She couldn't be real: such
beauty wasn't possible. 'I don't believe what I'm
seeing.' he said aloud and pushed his mask right up to
the top of his head to see better.
Romeo & Juliet Soliloquy 2
Act Two Scene Two: What light through yonder window
breaks? (Spoken by Romeo)
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!
Soliloquy 2 translation:
A light came on in a window.
Perhaps it was her! Lighting the world like the morning
sun! She was the sun, so much more beautiful than the
goddess of the night, the moon.
As though in answer to his wishes a door opened and she
came out on to a balcony.
'It's her!' he whispered. 'Oh, it's my love.'
He wished she could know he was there, sitting on the
wall, watching her. Her lips were moving but he
couldn't hear what she was saying. Anyway, she couldn't
be talking to him.
As he stared at her he tried to understand how anyone
could be so beautiful. It was as though the two most
radiant stars in the sky had business somewhere else
and had begged her eyes to take their place while they
were away. It was as though they had changed places and
the stars were in her head, her eyes in the heavens.
But even then, the beauty of her cheek would dim those
eyes in the same way as daylight overwhelms a lamp. Her
eyes would shine so brightly in the heavens that birds
would start singing, thinking it was daytime
As he watched she leant her cheek on her hand!
Oh how he wished he could be a glove on that hand so
that he could touch that cheek! Oh how .
She sighed loudly
He had to get closer
He jumped.
At any other time he might have hurt himself but now he
didn't even feel the ground as he landed. All he was
thinking was that he wanted her to speak again. She was
an angel. Wherever she was the night would be lit up.
Romeo & Juliet Soliloquy 3
Act Two Scene Five: The clock struck nine when I did
send the nurse (Spoken by Juliet)
The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse;
In half an hour she promised to return.
Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not so.
O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams,
Driving back shadows over louring hills:
Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love,
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve
Is three long hours, yet she is not come.
Had she affections and warm youthful blood,
She would be as swift in motion as a ball;
My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
And his to me:
But old folks, many feign as they were dead;
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.
Soliloquy 3 translation:
Juliet could see by the way the sun hung over the
distant hill that it was twelve o'clock. Her Nurse had
been gone three hours! She had promised to return in
half an hour.
Perhaps she hadn't found him! No, that couldn't be. Oh,
Nurse. was pathetic. The messengers of love should be
as light as thoughts, traveling ten times faster than
sunbeams, pushing all doubts and fears away, as light
does to threatening shadows. That's why Love's coach is
always drawn by swiftly flying doves: that's why Cupid
has wings!
If her Nurse had any feelings - any passion whatsoever
- her message would travel as fast as a tennis ball.
The Nurse would be the ball. Juliet would serve and
Romeo would return it just as fast. But like all old
people, the Nurse might as well be dead. She was
clumsy, slow, heavy and dull, like lead.
Juliet stuck her head out of the window every few
seconds, searching the alleyway along which the Nurse
would come.
Romeo & Juliet Soliloquy 4
Act Three Scene Two: Gallop apace, you fiery-footed
steeds (Spoken by Juliet)
Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner
As Phaethon would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:
Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold,
Think true love acted simple modesty.
Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possess'd it, and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd: so tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse,
And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence.
Soliloquy 4 translation:
Juliet was impatient for the night to come. It seemed
that the day would go on forever. She wished the god of
the sun would whip his horses so that they would carry
him faster to the distant west and allow night to fall
like a thick curtain. Then her husband could come to
her in secret.
Who needed daylight? Lovers didn't: their own beauty
was light enough to see by. In any case, if love is
blind night is the best time for it.
She sat in her room, marveling at how long a day can
be. She thought about what would happen when the night
finally fell and Romeo was with her: how she would give
herself to him and by so doing, win him forever. The
darkness would hide her blushes when they made love.
She went to the window and gazed out over the orchard
where Romeo had stood. It was so frustrating: she had
bought a house of love but not yet taken possession of
it - she was like some brand new item that hadn't yet
been used. Oh, what tedium: she felt like a child on
the night before an important day who has all her new
clothes lined up but wasn't allowed to wear them until
morning.
Romeo & Juliet Soliloquy 5
Act Four Scene Three: I have a faint cold fear thrills
through my veins (Spoken by Juliet)
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
That almost freezes up the heat of life:
I'll call them back again to comfort me:
Nurse! What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
Come, vial.
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there.
Laying down her dagger
What if it be a poison, which the friar
Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,-As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,
Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are packed:
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort;-Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad:-O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears?
And madly play with my forefather's joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone,
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point: stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.
Soliloquy 5 translation:
When they had gone Juliet wondered when she would see
them again. She went to a little cabinet and took out
the bottle the Friar had given her. There was a dagger
in there as well and she placed it on the cabinet's
top, Then she drew the curtains around the bed and lay
down .
As she thought about what she had to do fear began to
take hold of her. It spread through her veins like iced
water and almost paralyzed her. She wanted to call them
back and actually opened her mouth and formed the word
'Nurse' before pulling herself together. What could the
Nurse do for her now? She was alone.
She was clutching the bottle She opened her hand now
and looked at it. What if it didn't work?. Did that
mean she'd have to be married tomorrow? She reached for
the dagger and placed it beside her on the bed. She'd
use it if she had to.
She lifted the bottle again. What if it were some
poison that the Friar had given her because he wanted
her dead? In case they should blame him for her
marriage to Romeo? She was convinced of it when she
thought about it and yet it couldn't be: everyone knew
he was a holy man.
What if she was in the tomb and woke up before Romeo
came to fetch her? That was too horrible to think
about. She'd suffocate in the vault - choke in the
stench of death - and die, strangled, before Romeo
came,
Even if she didn't die there wouldn't she go mad? Just
to think about all those dead bodies: all those
corpses!. It was a vault where her dead ancestors had
been packed for hundreds of years.
Tybalt. He was there. Not so long dead. He would be
decomposing! And they say that at certain times of
night ghosts visit the newly dead. She sat up and
looked fearfully at the thick curtains.
She was sure that. if she woke earlier than planned with those loathsome smells and the shrieks of the dead
- she would go mad and she would do some desperate
things: she would play with her ancestors' remains and
pull the dead Tybalt out of his shroud, and even
perhaps take one of her great ancestor's bones and bash
her own brains out with it.
Even here in her bedroom, she was starting to see
things. Tybalt 's ghost was walking about, looking for
Romeo.
'No,' she shouted. 'Don't Tybalt. 'Stop.'
She uncorked the bottle and raised it to her lips.
'Romeo! Romeo! Romeo!' she cried. 'I drink to you!'
She flung the bottle from her and fell back on the bed.
Romeo & Juliet Soliloquy 6
Act Five Scene Three: How oft when men are at the point
of death (Spoken by Romeo)
How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death: O, how may I
Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favour can I do to thee,
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
To sunder his that was thine enemy?
Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love!
Soliloquy 6 translation:
Looking at her he had a sudden feeling of happiness.
He. Couldn't believe what little effect death had had
on her beauty. Death hadn't defeated her - her lips and
cheeks were still rosy.
He looked around the fearful place Tybalt lay on bier
a few feet away. 'Tybalt,' he said, 'Is that you in
your shroud? Oh what greater favour can I do you than
kill myself, the man who was your enemy? Forgive me,
cousin.'
Why was she still so beautiful? Was it because Death
was in love with her and was keeping her in that dark
place as his mistress? If that was so he would stay
there with her and never leave. He would join the worms
that were her chamber-maids. This was where he would
live forever.
But it was time. 'Eyes look your last,' he said. 'Arms
take your last embrace.' He took her in his arms and
raised her up. He kissed her. He lowered her again and
took out the poison. It was time. 'Here's to my love!'