Oh, this one is nice! Some time ago I made a little project of memorizing some of my favorite sonnets by Shakespeare. This one was on top of the list. And it was not at all caused by the fact that years ago, in my other life, one of my favorite Polish musicians recorded this lovely interpretation of the Polish translation of Sonnet 102, along with some other ones. Translation by Maciej Słomczyński, music by Stanislaw Soyka.
Embedded is Stanislaw Soyka's take on it. As I'm writing this post, I've listened to this song at least 10 times.
SONNET 102
My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear:
That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish every where.
Our love was new and then but in the spring
When I was wont to greet it with my lays,
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing
And stops her pipe in growth of riper days:
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
But that wild music burthens every bough
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.
Therefore like her I sometime hold my tongue,
Because I would not dull you with my song.
