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.
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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
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Jon Corelis [log in to unmask]
www.geocities.com/joncpoetics
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