పుట్టి, పెరిగి, సంపూర్ణత సాధించే ప్రతిదానికీ

దాని పరిపక్వత క్షణికమే అన్న ఆలోచన వచ్చినపుడు;

ఈ ప్రపంచం కేవలమొక నాటకరంగమనీ, దానిపై

నక్షత్రాలు తమ రహస్య ప్రభావాన్ని చూపిస్తాయనీ అనుకుని,

అవే నక్షత్రాలను అద్దుకున్న ఆకాశపు మంచిచెడుల ప్రభావంతో

మనుషులందరూ మొక్కలెదిగినట్టు ఎదగడం చూసినపుడు,

వాళ్ళ యవ్వనపు పసరు వయసు వాటాడువరకు చాటుతూ

అతికష్టంగా వాళ్ళ జ్ఞాపకాల్లోంచి తప్పించడం గమనించినపుడు;

భూమిమీద మనుగడ క్షణికమన్న భావన తళుక్కుమనగానే

నీ యవ్వన శోభ నా కళ్ళకి కట్టినట్టు కనిపిస్తుంది.

అన్నిటినీ నిర్వీర్యంచేసే కాలంకూడా తటపటాయిస్తుంది

మధ్యాహ్నశోభతో మెరిసే అందాన్ని కాళ రాత్రిగా మార్చడానికి

అందరం నీ మీది ప్రేమతో కాలంతో కయ్యానికైనా సిద్ధం,

అది నీ నుండి అందాన్ని లాక్కున్నా, నా కవితతో అంటుకడతాను.

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షేక్స్పియర్

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Sonnet 15

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When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and cheque’d even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay,
To change your day of youth to sullied night;
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.     

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Shakespeare

 

ANALYSIS

this huge stage (3): Shakespeare’s first reference to the world as a ‘stage.’ See Jaques’ famous speech in As You Like It: “All the world’s a stage/And all the men and women merely players” (2.7).

Whereon the stars…comment (4): “It was generally believed that man’s behaviour and events were influenced, though not determined, by the stars (‘influence’ is a technical astrological term = ethereal fluid flowing from the stars, affecting men and events), and such influence is described as ‘secret’ because it worked behind man’s back (‘unheard’) like a political cabal or theatrical claque. Astrologers, of course, claimed to penetrate this ‘secret influence’” (Blakemore Evans, 128).

Lines 5-8: – Line 5 marks the beginning of a conceit based on flowers. Shakespeare uses a conceit of this kind in several sonnets, such as Sonnet 5 (13-14), Sonnet 6 (1-2), and Sonnet 12 (2-12).

As he takes…new (14): Thus the poet defeats both the ravages of time and the onset of Decay as he plants (‘engrafts’) his friend anew.

The group of sonnets 15-19 has been referred to as the third stage of Shakespeare’s sonnets, in which the poet strives to immortalize his dear friend in verse, thereby saving him from the ravages of all-consuming Time. No line states more clearly this underlying theme in the sonnets than line 13: “And all in war with Time for love of you.” For more information on the theme of time in Shakespeare’s sonnets, please see my analysis of Sonnets 18 and 19.

Notice the significant parallels between Sonnets 15 and 12. Although the theme of Sonnet 12 – the necessity of procreation – is slightly different from the theme of Sonnet 15, they are nonetheless strikingly similar in style. “The two texts exhibit virtually identical sentence structures: each has (1) dependent “When” – clauses in the octave, one at the start of each quatrain (though Sonnet 12 has another at line 3), (2) a principal “Then” – clause, making up the third quatrain, and (3) a clausally independent couplet attached by “And.” Moreover, in the octave of each, the “I” ponders the universality of temporal decay, especially the kind that is ruinous to plant and human life; in the sestet he switches from universal to particular, and also to second-person address, to focus these melancholy reflections specifically upon the friend”

Poem and Analysis Courtesy:  http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/15.html