Yo, Girl!

Ok, let me get this part out of the way. These words are original. They're a translation of a reasonably well-known poem, though. When Vocal threw up a challenge to write a love poem with words of four letters or less, I got to thinking. "What would good ol' Bill Shakespeare do with that? What if Sonnet 18 was translated for a rapper?" (I've come to appreciate rappers as poets.) That should be enough to explain the abomination written here. I make no apologies, except perhaps to the late master, himself. No slurs of any kind are intended.

Because I don't know too many people who know this poem by heart, I printed both versions: William's in regular print and mine in bold.

I also embedded a nice, easy free beat, for those of you who want a little background for your reading. (I do not own the rights to the video and the beat is available for purchase if you follow the YT link.) Let it get rolling before you start reading.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Yo, girl, I'm down with June and all, but you?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

You be more fine and hawt - but not too much.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

That wind can BLOW in June, girl, don't you know,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

And them fine days ain't many, babe. You feel me?

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

Them rays can get too hot down here, too, yo?

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

But they can be too dim on some days, too.

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

And hey, the chic don't last long ev'ry time,

By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;

Just cuz, or shit gets real with Mama Nate'

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

But girl, your fire ain't goin' out, no way,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

No repo man gon' come for what you owe,

Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,

What you got ain't dyin', babe, no way,

When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.

When you go down on the page like this,

 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

Long as bros can huff and puff and all,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Girl, your fine self goes on, yeah - cuz I writ this.

***

If you've made it this far, thanks, and I hope you had a little fun with this.

Thanks for reading!