Shakespeare's Sonnets

Bass Bellman

In a sparkling new translation, Bas Belleman shows why William Shakespeare is the greatest poet of all time. These 154 sonnets have never been surpassed: they are vulgar and profound, dark and crystal clear, full of love and sex, swirling with despair and madness. They read like confessions, but also like radical experiments.

The translations flow: they are literal where possible and free where necessary. The extensive notes reveal subtleties and ambiguities in each sonnet: the fruits of ten years of reading and translating.

This edition also includes the narrative poem 'A lover's Complaint', which was virtually never included in previous translations. It's a beautiful poem about a woman who was seduced and felt her heart break.