Original, by William Shakespeare

SHALL I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.



New version, by me:

if'n'uh'd kumpeird 'yu tu'uh summr dei
yer ahl, laik, purdy'n stuff
an' hawt-dayum, if'n'di wind bee awl hard'n shit
summrz awl short'n shit
sumtaimz its reel hot'n'stuff
an' it ghits awl dark
an' stuff'll ghit uugley
hyuk hyuk
but'ch'y'll nivir ghit uugley
nnaaaaahhhppp
cuz yu'ain// guuunna daaaii
cuz ah sed awl dis shit!
so winivr peepl reed dis shit
dey'll tink'vv yuu!

05/24/2005

Author's Note: I was talking to a friend of mine about remakes. Not simply remakes of poems, but just remakes in general. We were talking about how a lot of Middle English structure and vocabulary has actually survived in the American South (e.g. "hither", "yon", "reckon", etc.) and we came up with the idea of what Shakespeare would sound like in the such. So, here you have it. Hop'n y'all injoy! hyuk hyuk!

Posted on 05/24/2005
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