Me: Can you write this poem in modern English?
ChatGPT:
Sure, here’s a modern English rendition of Shakespeare’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy:
Should I exist, or not exist, that’s the question: Is it nobler to endure the hardships of fate, Or to fight against a sea of troubles And end them by opposing them? To die—to sleep, No more; and through sleep, we end The heartache and the many natural shocks That flesh is heir to: it’s a desirable end, Wished for devoutly. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perhaps to dream—yes, there’s the problem: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shed off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—there’s the respect That turns a long life into a disaster. For who would bear the whips and scorn of time, The wrongs of oppressors, the insults of the proud, The pain of unrequited love, the delays of justice, The arrogance of authority, and the rejections That virtue patiently endures from the unworthy, When one could end it all With a simple knife? Who would bear burdens, To groan and sweat under a tiresome life, But that the fear of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose boundary No traveler returns, confuses the will, And makes us prefer to bear the troubles we know Than to flee to those we don’t know? So conscience makes cowards of us all, And thus the natural determination Is weakened by overthinking, And great and important endeavors Lose their momentum because of this hesitation And are stripped of their title as actions.
Doesn’t quite have the same feel as the original English does.