Shakespeare Translations

Translated by Findegil / Björn Fromén

These are a selection of different texts by William Shakespeare translated into Quenya.

Laitale óraviéva

[Praise of mercy]

Maustallo óravie ná illin únat.

Menello liptas síve milya miste

cemenna nún, yasse atamána nás:

mánatas ye anta, mánatas ye came.

Melehta imbi ammelehtar netyas

i túru arcanwasse ambe epe i rie.

Vandilya tana lúmea cánusse;

tannemma nás rá tárien ar áyan

yasse aistie yo sosse araniéva.

Mal or i vandil-túre óravie

same arcanwarya aranion mi óri,

ar háras Ea pella as Eru immo;

ta hére ambarwa ambe ilyo ve Eruva

yá sanyer asya óravie.

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God’s

When mercy seasons justice.

(Merchant of Venice IV 1)

*óravie ‘[having] mercy’, gerund of órava- ‘have mercy’

mausta-llo ‘out of compulsion’

illin únat ‘a thing impossible to all’

*lipta- ‘drip’ (lipte- QL 54)

ata-mána ‘double-blessed’

túru ‘great lord or king’ (PE 21:83)

arcanwa ‘throne’ (PE 22:147)

vandil ‘staff, *sceptre’ (QL 99)

cánusse ‘mastership’ (PE 17:155)

*tann(a-)emma ‘symbol’ (‘token-picture’)

hére ‘lordship’ (QL 40)

ambar-wa ‘of the Earth’

ambe ily-o ‘most of all’ (cf. an[calima] eleni-on ‘most [bright] of stars’)


Melinduo oquetie pa filici

[Two lovers’ talk about small birds]

Ma lennuvatye? Haira en ná tindóme.

I lómelinde né, lá lirulin,

ye tereva hlarutya sostane.

Illómea liris i marindesse.

Né sé; a melda, sava quetienya!

“Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.

It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.

Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree.

Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.”

Né lirulin, amaureo tercáno,

lá lómelinde! Melda, yé! nwalc'arma

Rómesse netya i fanyar cilime.

I lómecalmar fírier, mery' aure

ná pirucendea hísingoris.

Qui lennan, cuile nin; qui lemyan, qualme.

“It was the lark, the herald of the morn,

No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks

Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.

Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

I must be gone and live, or stay and die.”

(Romeo & Juliet III 5)

*o-quet-ie ‘col-loqu-y’, ‘conversation’

haira ‘remote, distant’

en ‘still’ (PE 17:167)

tereva ‘piercing’ (QL 91)

hlaru-tya dual ‘your [pair of] ears’

sosta-ne past tense ‘frighten-ed’

*illómea ‘nightly’ (cf. ilaurea ’daily’)

marinde ‘fruit tree’ (QL 59)

sava quetie-nya ‘believe my words’ (cf. VT 49:28)

nwalc(a) arma ‘a cruel ray of sunlight’

*cilima ‘dividing’ (from KIL- ‘divide’)

pirucendea ‘on toe-points’ (PE 16:96)

*hís(e-)ingor ‘mist-summit’

qui lennan, cuile nin ‘if I depart, [there will be] life for me’,
qui lemyan, qualme ‘if I remain, death’


Melme ar milme

[Love and desire]

Cé lindale ná melmemat, á tyale

antyálie! sie, penquanta ar ambe,

i milme nauva laiwa ar firuva.

A linge tana ata! Fifírula

túles or hlarunyanna ve sú lisse,

ya hwesta helinillion rávanna,

arpo yo anto olmento.

If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again! it had a dying fall:

O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odour!

(Twelfth Night I 1)

melme-mat ‘love-food’ (mat ‘food’ PE 21:27)

á tyale *antyálie ‘play with more effort’, ‘play excessively’,

cf. á tire antírie ‘watch more closely’ (PE 17:94)

penquanta ar ambe ‘full to the brim and more’

linge ‘musical sound’ (PE 16:96)

hlaru-nya dual ‘my [pair of] ears’

helinille ‘violet’ (QL 39)

arpo ‘thief’ (PE 19:89)

anto ‘giver’


Herendilo hehtale ingoléva

[Prospero’s abandonment of magic]

A orossi, nindari ar tavari,

a fairi, i pa litse ú runyo roitar

Osse nanwesse ar rucir sello luimes;

a inwilitsi nu isilme i carir

i salquerindi sáre ion máma

lá nace; ta, i carir tyaliénen

telumbi lómendesse, hláriéla

alassenen i nyellon sinyeva.

Cenai túrelda nípa ná, ananta

astarieldanen vasarya pollen

anar aurendeo, i súri raique

etyallen, tyarnen ohta rávea

imbe ear laica ar luine telume,

ruine ánen ungon naira patacanda,

hyanden i amaronda nordoron

tarítanen valaina; quastanen

i falqua tulcatalmava, as sundur

aicor yo súce amortanen; saptassen,

yá canyanen, eccoiruner i lornar,

leryanwe ingolenyanen. Mal núle

sís hehtan vandanen, ar vandilinya

sí racuvan ar nurtuvan mi cemen

nu rangwelinnar, ar andútuvan

mi earon parmanya i undumenna.

Ye elves1 of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,

And ye that on the sands with printless foot

Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him

When he comes back; you demi-puppets that

By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,

Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime

Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice

To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,

Weak masters though ye be,

                                                    I have bedimm'd

The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,

And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault

Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder

Have I given fire

                              and rifted Jove's stout oak

With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory

Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up

The pine and cedar: graves at my command

Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth

By my so potent art. But this rough magic

I here abjure, and […] now […] I'll break my staff,

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,

And deeper than did ever plummet sound

I'll drown my book.

(The Tempest V 1)

orossi ‘fays of the mountains’ (BLT I 264)

nindari ‘river-maids, nymphs’ (PE 21:14)

tavari ‘fays of the woods’ (BLT I 267)

inwilitse ‘little fairy’ (QL 42), here used figuratively for ‘small fay’

*salque-rinde ‘grass-circle’

telumbe ‘mushroom’ (QL 90)

*lóm-ende ‘midnight’ *aur-ende ‘midday’ (cf. loende ‘mid-year’)

*hláriéla ‘having heard’ perfect participle of hlar- ‘hear’

*nyell-on ‘large bell’ (augmentative -on, cf. earon, andon)

*as-tar-ie ‘support’, cf. as-tar-indo ‘by-stand-er’, ‘supporter’

*polle- ‘was able to’, past tense of pol- ‘can, be able’

raiqua ‘angry’ (PE 22:124)

*et-yalle- past tense of *et-yal- ‘call forth’

patacanda ‘rattling’ (QL 72)

hyande- past tense of hyar- ‘cleave’

ama-ronda ‘most solid’, ‘firmest’

nordo ‘oak’ (PE 17:25)

*tar-íta ‘flash from on high’, ‘lightning’

*quas-ta- ‘make [sth] shake’, causative of quasa- ‘shake (intr.)’ (QL 76)

falqua ‘cliff, cleft’ (QL 38), cf. S falch in Orfalch Echor

tulca-talma ‘strong-base’

aicor ‘pine-tree’ (PE 13:158) súce ‘fir’ (QL 86), used for want of a word for ‘cedar’

sapta ‘grave’ (PE 16:62, 75)

canya- *‘command’ (PE 17:113)

eccoiru- ‘come to life’ (PE 22:114)

vanda-nen ‘on oath’

vandil ‘staff’ (QL 99)

i lornar ‘those asleep’, ’sleepers’

andúta- ‘lower, cause to sink’ (PE 22:135, 156)

i undume-nna ‘into the deepest part’ (undume ‘abyss’)

1 In terms of Tolkien’s legendarium the beings here addressed as “elves” would rather be called “fays” or “sprites”. “Many lesser spirits they [the Valar] brought in their train, both great and small, and some of these Men have confused with the Eldar or Elves; but wrongly” (BLT I, p. 80 n.).


Tiesse Roccondilin

[On the road to Philippi]

Tulmassen fírimóron ea sóla,

ya luimenen hilyanwa mene almenna;

útirina, ciryastier vehtento

marte únúra nenna ar angayassin.

Quant' earesse taite sí lútalwe;

ha mauya i mahtuvalwe i celume,

hya vanwa vello ná ciryalvo cólo.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

(Julius Caesar IV 3)

*Rocco-ndil-i ‘Phil-[h]ipp-i’

tulma ‘event’ (PE 22:124)

sóla ‘tide’ (QL 85)

*ú-tir-ina ‘un-heed-ed’

*ciryastie ‘sailing’, ‘voyage’ (ciryasta ‘to sail’)

*ú-núra ‘un-deep’, ‘shallow’ (cf. the Undeeps, shallows in Anduin)

angayasse ‘misery’ (QL 34)

lut- ‘flout, sail’ (PE 16:134)

ha ‘it’ (PE 22:119)

mauya i ‘compels that’

mahtuva- future of mahta- ‘make use of’

ve-llo ‘from us’

cólo *‘load’ (cf. S cûl)