Or I shall live your epitaph to make

Or I shall live your epitaph to make,
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;
From hence your memory death cannot take,
Although in me each part will be forgotten.
Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:
The earth can yield me but a common grave,
When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read,
And tongues to be your being shall rehearse
When all the breathers of this world are dead;
  You still shall live--such virtue hath my pen--
  Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.

by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) , from Sonnets, no. 81

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Elena Olegovna Firsova (1950-) , "Or I shall live your epitaph to make", op. 25 no. 1, published 1981, first performed 1986 [voice and organ], from Shakespeare's Sonnets, no. 1.
by Elena Olegovna Firsova (1950-) , "Or I shall live your epitaph to make", op. 25a no. 1, published 1988 [voice and saxophone quartet], from Shakespeare's Sonnets, no. 1.

by Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky (1904-1987) , "Tebe l' menja pridjotsja khoronit'", op. 52 no. 1 (1953-5), from Desjat' sonetov Shekspira, no. 1.

RUS Russian [singable] (Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov)
ITA Italian (Ferdinando Albeggiani)

Date added to the website: 2003-11-04.

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Tebe l' menja pridjotsja khoronit'

Tebe l' menja pridjotsja khoronit'
Il' mne tebja, - ne znaju, drug moj milyj. 
No pust' sud'by tvojej prervjotsja nit', -
Tvoj obraz ne ischeznet za mogiloj. 
Ty sokhranish' i zhizn', i krasotu,
A ot menja nichto ne sokhranitsja. 
Na kladbishche pokoj ja obretu,
A tvoj prijut - otkrytaja grobnica. 
Tvoj pamjatnik - vostorzhennyj moj stikh. 
Kto ne rozhden jeshchjo, jego uslyshit. 
I mir povtorit povest' dnej tvoikh,
Kogda umrut vse te, kto nyne dyshit. 
Ty budesh' zhit', zemnoj pokinuv prakh,
Tam, gde zhivjot dykhan'e, - na ustakh!

Show Cyrillic (Покажите текст в кириллице)
Note on Transliteration

by Samuil Yakovlevich Marschak (1887-1964) , "Sonet LXXXI"

a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) , from Sonnets, no. 81 ITA

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky (1904-1987) , "Tebe l' menja pridjotsja khoronit'", op. 52 no. 1 (1953-5), from Desjat' sonetov Shekspira, no. 1.

Date added to the website: 2003-11-04.