Item — HN Reader

The article tells us a quote from Romeo & Juliet was etched on Shoemaker's lunar burial capsule. Here's the quote and more from NASA.[1]

And, when he shall die,

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night,

And pay no worship to the garish sun.

[1] https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/news82.html

RIP all you pioneer astronomers!

1 comments

Translation: When he dies, turn him into stars and form a constellation in his image. His face will make the heavens so beautiful that the world will fall in love with the night and not want daylight to come.

This is hardly some abstract modern poetry requiring an explanation...

Actually, I have trouble understanding even simple poetic writing, like Shakespeare, and I'm a native English speaker with a graduate degree. I'm sure there are more like me, especially among engineers!

Took me like three reads and I still didn't get it, maybe not being a native english speaker has something to do with it

Fair enough, I might have underestimated how much a few uni literature classes may have helped me comprehend poetry.

Translating poetry into not-poetry seems like a sad hobby.

It's also part of the standard Italian education, it's called "paraphrasing"