The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (520 page)

That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,

The pure whiteness of a mountaintop’s snow

Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow

Blown by the eastern wind turns as black as a crow

When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss

When compared with your hand. Let me kiss

This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

You, a princess of pure white, and seal my happiness!

HELENA

O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent

Oh curses on both of you! You are both together

To set against me for your merriment:

Joined in mocking me for your own enjoyment.

If you were civil and knew courtesy,

If you were kind, and new common courtesy,

You would not do me thus much injury.

You wouldn’t hurt me this much.

Can you not hate me, as I know you do,

Can you just hate me, as I know you do,

But you must join in souls to mock me too?

Without joining together to make fun of me as well?

If you were men, as men you are in show,

If you were true men, as noble as you pretend to be

You would not use a gentle lady so;

You would not treat a gentle lady like this:

To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,

To promise and swear your love, to overemphasize my beauty,

When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.

When I know that really you hate me in your hearts.

You both are rivals, and love Hermia;

You are rivals in loving Hermia,

And now both rivals, to mock Helena:

And now you are rivals in mocking me:

A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,

A neat and manly goal,

To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes

To create tears to fall from a poor girl’s eyes

With your derision! none of noble sort

From your evilness! No truly noble man

Would so offend a virgin, and extort

Would cause such hurt in a young, chaste girl, none would test

A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.

A poor soul’s patience for his own fun.

LYSANDER

You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;

You are mean, Demetrius, now stop.

For you love Hermia; this you know I know:

You love Hermia and you know that I know it,

And here, with all good will, with all my heart,

And right here, with the best of my intentions,

In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;

I give up my pursuit of Hermia.

And yours of Helena to me bequeath,

Now you give up your vows to Helena

Whom I do love and will do till my death.

Whom I love and will do so until I die.

HELENA

Never did mockers waste more idle breath.

Jokers never wasted so much breath in speaking nonsense.

DEMETRIUS

Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:

Lysander, keep your Hermia because I will not.

If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.

If I ever truly lover her, that love is now gone.

My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,

My heart journeyed to her, but did not stay,

And now to Helen is it home return'd,

And now it has come back to its home, Helena,

There to remain.

Where it will remain.

LYSANDER

Helen, it is not so.

Helena, he is lying.

DEMETRIUS

Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,

Don’t insult the love you do not know

Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.

Or else, to your harm, you will have to pay for your words.

Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.

Look, your love is coming from over there; there is your beloved.

Re-enter HERMIA

HERMIA

Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,

The night is so dark that it ruins the eye’s ability to see,

The ear more quick of apprehension makes;

But it makes the ear’s hearing stronger.

Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,

Though it hurts one’s sense of sight,

It pays the hearing double recompense.

It accounts for such harm by giving hearing twice as much perception.

Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;

I could not find you, Lysander, by my sight,

Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound

But I thank my ears that brought me to your voice – 

But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?

Why did you so abruptly leave my side?

LYSANDER

Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?

Why should I have stayed, when love pressed me to go?

HERMIA

What love could press Lysander from my side?

What love could possibly press you to go and outweigh your love for me?

LYSANDER

Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,

My unabiding love for

Fair Helena, who more engilds the night

Beautiful Helena, who makes the night look more golden

Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.

Than do the stars above.

Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,

Why did you look for me? Didn’t my leaving make it obvious

The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?

That I hate you, and that this hate made me leave?

HERMIA

You speak not as you think: it cannot be.

You cannot be speaking what you really think.

HELENA

Lo, she is one of this confederacy!

Hermia is part of this plan to mock me!

Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three

Now I see that all three have joined together

To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.

To play this mean joke at my expense.

Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!

Hurtful Hermia! You awful lady!

Have you conspired, have you with these contrived

Have you planned with these men

To bait me with this foul derision?

To trick me with this mean ploy?

Is all the counsel that we two have shared,

Remember all that we shared, the conversations

The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,

And the promises, the hours spent together,

When we have chid the hasty-footed time

 We were even angry that we didn’t have more

For parting us,--O, is it all forgot?

Time together – and now is it all lost?

All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?

Our friendship at school and our young innocent friendship, lost?

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,

Hermia, we used to be like fake gods of our world,

Have with our needles created both one flower,

Sitting together and sewing the same flower

Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,

On the same sampler, sitting on the same cushion

Both warbling of one song, both in one key,

and singing together in the same key,

As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,

As if our hands and bodies, our voices and our minds

Had been incorporate. So we grow together,

Were fused together. We grew together

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,

Like two cherries – seemingly apart,

But yet an union in partition;

But united at the base,

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;

Two lovely cherries joined at the stem.

So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;

Seemingly we had two different bodies, but always one heart,

Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

Like two coats of arms on a shield

Due but to one and crowned with one crest.

That pledge their allegiance to the same king, crowned with a single crest.

And will you rent our ancient love asunder,

And now will you break the bonds of all of this

To join with men in scorning your poor friend?

By joining with these men in mocking me?

It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:

It is neither friendly nor ladylike:

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,

All women would do well to criticize you for it,

Though I alone do feel the injury.

Though I am the only woman hurt by it.

HERMIA

I am amazed at your passionate words.

What you are saying stuns me.

I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.

I do not hold you in contempt, but it seems you think of me that way.

HELENA

Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,

Didn’t you make Lysander, from your contempt for me,

To follow me and praise my eyes and face?

Follow me and compliment my looks?

And made your other love, Demetrius,

And then didn’t you make the other man who loves you, Demetrius,

Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,

Who at all times before now turned me away, even with his foot,

To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,

Call me a goddess, a fairy, divine and rare,

Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this

Precious and heavenly? Why else would he say this

To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander

To the one he hates? And why does Lysander

Deny your love, so rich within his soul,

Deny his love for you, which before was all he could talk about,

And tender me, forsooth, affection,

And now give me, really, signs of affection – 

But by your setting on, by your consent?

Why else but from you consenting to it and asking him to do it?

What thought I be not so in grace as you,

What did you think, seeing me in such an unhappy position,

So hung upon with love, so fortunate,

So obsessed with love, so happy to be in love

But miserable most, to love unloved?

But all the more miserable to be in love without being loved in return?

This you should pity rather than despise.

You should pity me instead of mock me.

HERNIA

I understand not what you mean by this.

I don’t know what you mean by what you are saying.

HELENA

Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,

Fine, continue your fake sadness,

Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;

And laugh silently at me when I turn around,

Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:

Wink at each other, keep up your joke.

This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.

This game, carried out long enough, will be remembered.

If you have any pity, grace, or manners,

If you have any pity, grace, or manners,

You would not make me such an argument.

You would not make me even have to appeal like this.

But fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault;

But have fun – it’s all partly my own fault I guess,

Which death or absence soon shall remedy.

And death or running away will fix it soon enough.