If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree. Such a hare is madness the youth—to skip o’er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word “choose!” I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I dislike—so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father.

From “The Merchant of Venice” by William Shakespeare

I am reading Shakespeare again.  It is like reading the Bible; one always finds a new angle or message. This time I am doing the reverse of what I did with “Don Quixote.” Chapter by chapter, I first read the translation into contemporary English and then the original version in Spanish. This way I enjoy a profound understanding of Miguel of Cervantes’ ancient Castilian.  Likewise, reading Shakespeare’s works in modern Spanish enhances the meaning of the old English text. These classical masterpieces shine with splendor in both languages.  Even Mother Nature seemed to have celebrated the lives of these two giants. The greatest writers of the Spanish and English literature died less than 24 hours apart—Cervantes on the April 22, 1616, and Shakespeare, on April 23, 1616.

The featured snippet shows one of the engaging plots of Shakespeare’s plays, which deals with burning topics that have remained subjects of broad and ongoing interest since the inception of human society.  The beautiful prose, metaphors, and proverbs will continue to mesmerize readers for generations to come:  “If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces.” Yes, William Shakespeare and Miguel of Cervantes can turn poor cottages into palaces.