i first got in contact with Michelangelo's poems when i was a librarian - by
now a decade ago - and a very old thin and austere lady asked me please to
find them, which i had to enlarge since she could not read the small
characters. i never thought of the artist as a poet and this poem is maybe
one of his best. i am sorry i don't have any copies here, but if someone is
interested in the italian version, i can quickly go to the library and look
for it.
anyhow here i found his rimes:
http://www.nuovorinascimento.org/n-rinasc/testi/ascii/buonarrv/rime.txt
anny
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Corelis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 6:34 PM
Subject: Re: Say a poem
> I've always counted the poem below as interesting for a number of reasons:
> how good a poet the great artist must have been (I assume the quality of
the
> original shines through, since my Italian is at the phrase-book level,)
how
> good a translator Wordsworth unexpectedly is, how unlike Wordsworth the
poem
> is (I myself like it better than any of his original verse that I've
read,)
> and for a tone, very rare in English-language poetry, which combines
> intellectual subtlety, rhetorical elegance, and erotic passion into a
> statement of intense clarity. I couldn't find the original on the net so
if
> you want to see the Italian you'll probably have to find an actual book
made
> of paper.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
>
> To the Marchesana of Pescara
>
>
> Yes! hope may with my strong desire keep pace,
> And I be undeluded, unbetray'd;
> For if of our affections none find grace
> In sight of Heaven, then, wherefore hath God made
> The world which we inhabit? Better plea
> Love cannot have, than that in loving thee
> Glory to that eternal Peace is paid,
> Who such Divinity to thee imparts
> As hallows and makes pure all gentle hearts.
> His hope is treacherous only whose love dies
> With beauty, which is varying every hour;
> But, in chaste hearts, uninfluenced by the power
> Of outward change, there blooms a deathless flower,
> That breathes on earth the air of paradise.
>
>
> -- translated from the Italian of
> Michelangelo Buonarotti by William Wordsworth
>
>
>
> ==================================================
>
> Jon Corelis [log in to unmask]
> www.geocities.com/joncpoetics
>
> ==================================================
>
>
>
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