The Complete Poems of Michelangelo

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ISBN: 9780226080307 | 0226080307
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 4/15/2000

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There is no artist more celebrated than Michelangelo. Yet the magnificence of his achievements as a visual artist often overshadow his devotion to poetry. Michelangelo used poetry to express what was too personal to display in sculpture or painting. John Frederick Nims has brought the entire body of Michelangelo's verse, from the artist's ardent twenties to his anguished and turbulent eighties, to life in English in this unprecedented collection. The result is a tantalizing glimpse into a most fascinating mind. "Wonderful. . . . Nims gives us Michelangelo whole: the polymorphous love sonneteer, the political allegorist, and the solitary singer of madrigals."Kirkus Reviews "A splendid, fresh and eloquent translation. . . . Nims, an eminent poet and among the best translators of our time, conveys the full meaning and message of Michelangelo's love sonnets and religious poems in fluently rhymed, metrical forms."St. Louis Post-Dispatch "The best so far. . . . Nims is best at capturing the sound and sense of Michelangelo's poetic vocabulary."Choice "Surely the most compelling translations of Michelangelo currently available in English."Ronald L. Martinez, Washington Times John Frederick Nims (1913-1999) was the author of eight books of poetry, including Knowledge of the Evening, which was nominated for a National Book Award. Among his many translations is The Poems of Saint John of the Cross, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Preface

xvii

I The Long Beginning (1475--1532)

(34)

A man who's happy many a year, one hour

(1)

Brow burning, in cool gloom, as sundown shears

(1)

I was happy, with fate favoring, to abide

(1)

How joyfully it shows, the garland there

(1)

A goiter it seems I got from this backward craning

(1)

If any of those old proveebs, lord, make sense

(1)

Who's this that draws me forcibly to you?

(1)

O God, O God, O God, how can I be

(1)

He Who made all there is, made every part

(1)

Chalices hammered into sword and helmet!

(1)

How much less torment to breathe out my soul

(1)

How could I, since it's so

(1)

Fame keeps the epitaphs where they lie

(1)

The Day and the Night speak

(1)

Seeing I'm yours, I rouse me from afar

(1)

From one all loveliness and all allure

(1)

Rancorous heart, cruel, pitiless, though showing

(1)

Though shouldered from the road I chose when young

(1)

Fine lass or lady, they

(1)

Sweeter your face than grapes are, stewed to mush

(1)

Once born, death's our destination

(1)

What's to become of me? What's this you're doing

(1)

I was, for years and years now, wounded, killed

(1)

I made my eyes an entryway for poison

(1)

When with a clanking chain a master locks

(1)

Uproot a plant---there's no way it can seal

(1)

Flee from this Love, you lovers; flee the flame!

(1)

Because there's never a time I'm not enchanted

(1)

All rage, all misery, all show of strength

(1)

From eyes of my beloved one, come burning

(1)

Love in your eyes? No; life and death are there

(1)

I live for sinning, for the self that dies

(1)

Were it true that, besides my own, another's arms

(1)

Where my love lives is nowhere in my heart

(1)

The eyelid, shadowing, doesn't interfere

(1)

My lover stole my heart, just over there

(1)

In me there's only death; my life's in you

(1)

He who beguiles both time and death together

(1)

For a wound from the searing arrows Love lets fly

(1)

When blithely Love would lift me up to heaven

(1)

O noble soul, in whom, as mirrored, show

(1)

Pray tell me, Love, if what my eyes can see

(1)

My reason, out of sorts with me, deplores

(1)

When to that beauty that I saw before

(1)

It well may be, so vehement my sighing

(1)

If my rough hammer shapes the obdurate stone

(1)

When the occasioner of my many a sigh

(1)

Just as a flame, by wind and weather flailed

(1)

Your beauty, Love, stuns mortal reckonings

(1)

What's to become of her, long years from now

(1)

Alas! Alas! for the way I've been betrayed

(1)

Were one allowed to kill himself right here

(1)

Who rides by night on horseback, come the day

(1)

I do believe, if you were made of stone

(3)

Though quite expensive, look, I've bought you this

(1)

My death is what I live on; seems to me

(1)

If I'm more alive because love burns and chars me

(2)

II Three Loves (1532--1547)

(100)

If longings for the immortal, which exalt

(1)

If pure devotion, passion without stain

(1)

You know, my lord, that I too know you know

(1)

If, when it caught my eye first, I'd been bolder

(1)

Only with fire can men at forge and flue

(1)

So fond is fire of the frigid stone it waits

(1)

If fire can melt down steel and shatter flint

(1)

Just when I'm lost in adoration of you

(1)

Maybe, so I'd look kindly on souls in need

(1)

A new and more commendable delight

(3)

Then there's this giant---tall! So tall he can't

(2)

Nature knows what it's doing: one cruel as you

(1)

O cruel star, or say instead, cruel will

(1)

I have your letter, thank you, as received

(1)

If, through our eyes, the heart's seen in the face

(1)

Now that I'm banned and routed from the fire

(1)

I weep, I burn---burn up!---my heart thereby

(1)

Too much! the way he flaunts himself around

(1)

Whether or not the light I long for, sent

(1)

Supposing the passionate fire your eyes enkindle

(1)

From grief I cherished to a rueful laugh

(1)

Blissful spirit, thanks to whom new passion

(1)

I really believed, that first great day when, awed

(1)

In everything I see, the meaning's plain

(1)

Not even, in dreams sent soaring, can I imagine

(1)

What in your handsome face I see, my lord

(1)

From ink, from pen in hand we see outflow

(1)

Having, my friend, your letter here in hand

(1)

Already burdened with a heavy heart

(2)

I wish I'd want what I don't want, Lord, at all

(1)

By a face of fiery cold, I'm set aflame

(1)

Through your fine eyes I see such mellow light

(1)

I'm dearer to me, much more, than ever I was

(1)

So I can best endure

(1)

Although time presses hard and prods us on

(1)

Should the senses' rapturous burning override

(1)

Kindly to others, to itself unkind

(1)

Give back to my eyes their flow, O spring, O river

(1)

With all my heart I love you; if not so

(1)

With heart of sulphur, flesh of tinder too

(1)

Why ease the tension of this wild desire

(1)

What a chance I had! I should have, while I could

(1)

When heaven confirmed your brilliance, most of all

(1)

The night prevails where Phoebus---that's our sun

(1)

O night, comforting night, dark though you are

(1)

Every shut-in room or space, every covered one

(1)

The One Who made, and from utter nothing too

(1)

My gaze saw no mere mortal on the day

(1)

From heaven it ventured forth, there must return

(1)

Drawn to each lovely thing, my doting eyes

(1)

No rest here for the wicked, as folk say

(1)

Not always so prized and cherished by us all

(1)

I'm here to say you've given earth your all

(1)

My lady, if it's true

(1)

For a safe haven, for escape at last

(1)

No slightest chance on earth her heavenly eyes

(1)

Easily you confound

(1)

Wiles, guiles, smiles, gold and pearls, her gala ways

(1)

I wouldn't if I could, Love, check the urge

(1)

If right desire takes wing

(1)

Although my heart had often been aflame

(1)

From the first whimper to the expiring sigh

(1)

Time now good-byes were said

(1)

Just as you cannot not be lovely here

(1)

If fire, so quick to char

(1)

The more it seems I agonize, the more

(1)

My lady is so impetuous, devil-may-care

(1)

Such wealth of promise lies

(1)

If the soul, in truth, from body once set free

(1)

Not death so much, but its terror rescues me

(1)

The fear of death! Who'd shove

(1)

By light more brilliant of a star more bright

(1)

No doubt much peril lies

(1)

From beneath two arching brows

(1)

Whenever my past unrolls before these eyes

(1)

Life's final hours: brought there by many a year

(1)

O blessed souls, who high in heaven delight

(1)

With much of time and life gone, all the more

(1)

Flooded, the soul pours out

(1)

If, to rejoice, you crave our tears and woe

(1)

Humbly I bow my shoulders, bear the yoke

(1)

In lovelier and crueller flesh than yours

(1)

If the soul returns, that last

(1)

If I'm to believe my eyes now, your response

(1)

I think it may be, so

(1)

Life's quick and brief; the more my days fly by

(1)

At times I project ahead

(1)

If she rejoices in my tears, and you

(1)

Looks thrown away on others

(1)

Please tell me, Love, if that lady had a soul

(1)

I'd feel the more secure

(1)

I'll surely be thought a dullard in talent, art

(1)

Great mercy, my lady, as likely as great pain

(1)

Nothing the best of artists can conceive

(1)

As by subtracting, my lady, one creates

(1)

A mould's not alone in this

(1)

My lady, you raise me so

(1)

Your kindness to me, and the ways of fate

(1)

That whole way up to your brilliant diadem

(1)

Your merciful, sweet care

(1)

It seems, Love, out you've flung

(1)

To be less unworthy, my exalted lady

(1)

If obligated by so great a favor

100

(1)

What file's incessant bite

100

(1)

Now on the left foot shuffling, now the right

101

(1)

Hating myself, the more I run away

101

(1)

For a reliable guide in my vocation

102

(1)

If we constrain the eyes' easy response

102

(1)

My lady, these eyes see vividly---far, near

102

(1)

From where you triumphed in me, Love, right here

103

(1)

Because there's half of me which, heaven-born

103

(1)

Impassioned as I am

104

(1)

Great beauty scattering its brilliant flame

104

(1)

Among the memory of all lovely things

104

(1)

She's made her mind up, the

105

(1)

If a joyous heart makes beautiful the face

105

(1)

From what these eyes, my lady, see of you

106

(1)

So, Love, it hasn't healed, not even the least

106

(1)

No need at all for your angel loveliness

107

(1)

Bright in our minds, but in the dark earth stranded

107

(1)

Her beauty's alive in heaven! I believe her

107

(1)

If his bright eyes are closed and laid to rest

108

(1)

My fervent prayer, if any pity me

108

(1)

``So tell me, Death, why not possess some face

108

(1)

Death didn't wish to lay Cecchino low

108

(1)

Such brightness, under earth now, put to shame

108

(1)

My name meant ``Arms.'' But little help to me

108

(1)

Born, died. Now bedded by the churchyard wall

109

(1)

No way he who undid me can restore

109

(1)

Inside, his soul could not be outside too

109

(1)

If nature now deferred to death, dejected

109

(1)

Closed now his shining eyes, that dazzled so

109

(1)

Here I'm thought dead. Alive, I comforted

109

(1)

Souls rise alive from the body's sad last bed

110

(1)

If true (and it is) that with body's final breath

110

(1)

His beautiful eyes! I hardly saw them, only

110

(1)

Too early fallen asleep here, I'm alive

111

(1)

``If two hours' dying steals a hundred years

111

(1)

O lucky me, to look upon me dead!

111

(1)

My flesh turned earth, my bones turned naked shame

111

(1)

If it could be, to revive my life once more

111

(1)

Who grieve now at my grave, in vain they pray

112

(1)

Cold stone, none knows but you, my gaol forever

112

(1)

From clutch of clock and calendar now fled

112

(1)

One of the Bracci, I. Now, as you see

112

(1)

A Bracci born. From birth, born wailing, I'd

112

(1)

I'm dearer dead than ever I was, before

112

(1)

If death has buried here, hardly in leaf

113

(1)

From heaven my beauty, flawless and divine

113

(1)

I'm death's forever, who, that one forlorn

113

(1)

Gone under now, the sun you loved to greet

113

(1)

Why fallen so soon asleep? Not hard to tell

113

(1)

Peace, life---he found them in my open eyes

113

(1)

If, while I lived, a someone, eyes on me

114

(1)

No other handsome face such power possessed

114

(1)

Young Braccio's buried here. To mend a lack

114

(1)

His life gave yours rich reason for thanksgiving

114

(1)

Ashes to ashes, spirit to the sky

114

(1)

Within this tomb our handsome Braccio's laid

114

(1)

If Braccio's beauty, phoenix-like, could be

115

(1)

The sun of Braccio's under earth. The sun

115

(1)

A Bracci, I. Alive because I'm dead

115

(1)

Cecchino here has laid his body low

115

(1)

Braccio lies here. No less a tomb could show

115

(1)

Death stretched an arm, stole fruit not ripened yet.

115

(1)

Mere mortal once. Divine, though, born to be

116

(1)

Death shut those eyes, him too it shut below

116

(1)

A Bracci once. The soul in me withdrew

116

(1)

The soul lives on, I know it, lying here

116

(1)

Braccio retrieves from earth the mortal scrim

116

(1)

Earth lends us flesh, heaven lends the soul, the two

116

(1)

Be sure, my eyes, you know

117

(1)

To see that your famous beauty still endures

117

(1)

Too late for Love to set my heart aflame

117

(1)

No differently the guilty wretch hangs back

118

(1)

If, vulnerable from early youth, a heart

118

(1)

It's not enough, if it doesn't come from you

119

(1)

A man within a woman---no, I'd say

119

(1)

If by its heaven-sent power the mind conceives

120

(1)

To one of taste both flawless and robust

120

(1)

On earth, it's no unworthy soul that nurses

120

(1)

My lady, how comes it about---what all can see

121

(1)

This face, says art, alone

121

(1)

Through many a year and many a vain assay

121

(1)

As, working in hard stone to make the face

122

(1)

Whenever remembrance of the one I love

122

(1)

If sorrow makes one beautiful (it's said)

123

(1)

``Say the face I'm speaking of now, hers I mean

123

(1)

You revel in my torments, only you

124

(1)

To sleep, even more be made of stone: how these

124

(1)

Straight down from heaven, and in the flesh, he came

125

(1)

``Your beauty an angel's, Lady, you were meant

125

(1)

All there's to say of him, no way of saying

126

(1)

There's pleasure in great favors done, but hidden

126

(1)

Since I'm too obligated

127

(1)

Had I, when young, been leery of the glow

127

(1)

Though bent with age, to me

128

(1)

Your lovely eyes, now bent

128

(1)

Suppose a lady has no other graces

129

(1)

Why only at long last, why next to never

129

(1)

Although it's amply true your human face

130

(1)

No question but, when my desire's aflame

130

(1)

Not true that it's always grim with mortal sin

131

(1)

Love long delayed comes kindly, by fortune's favor

131

(1)

If a god, Love, can't you do

132

(1)

A woman's beauty, new

132

(1)

As I've carried in my heart this many a year

133

(1)

So it wouldn't need to retrieve the total sum

133

(1)

What wonder that---seeing how, beside your fire

134

(2)

III The Four Last Things (1547--1564)

136

(21)

I'm packaged in here like the pulp in fruit

143

(1)

Because age steals away

144

(1)

Now armed with biting ice, now tongues of fire

145

(1)

You give me only what you're glutted with

145

(1)

I fed on you, and with you, many a year

145

(1)

Bring back the day the reins hung slack and free

145

(1)

Though always one and the same, the one same who

146

(1)

Oh let me see You everywhere I go!

146

(1)

Enclosed and hidden in a monstrous stone

147

(1)

Whatever the eye finds lovely, in a flash

147

(1)

Though you with line and color excel, securing

148

(1)

If leaves aren't what you're wanting

148

(1)

Power of a lovely face impels me where?

148

(1)

Confused, with itself at odds, soul fails to find

148

(1)

Time was my fire burned high, yes, even on ice

149

(1)

In such servility! and all so boring!

149

(1)

The springtime, fresh and green, can never guess

149

(1)

If, in Your name, some image comes to mind

149

(1)

So now it's over, my day's long voyage, through

150

(1)

My infinite thoughts, so many gone awry

150

(1)

Day in, day out, from childhood long ago

150

(1)

The world and all its fables long ago

150

(1)

There's nothing lower on earth, of less account

151

(1)

Rid of this nagging nattering cadaver

151

(1)

I think, indeed know well, some crushing sin

152

(1)

How very sweet indeed the prayers I'd say

152

(1)

Burdened with years and crapulous with sin

152

(1)

It leaves me plunged in gloom and pain---yet dear

153

(1)

Assured of death, of its timing, though, not so

153

(1)

If our very thirst for longer life bids fair

154

(1)

Though years and years in dour allurement lapped

154

(1)

With no less joy than grief and consternation

154

(1)

For the sugar, for the mule, those candles too

155

(1)

By merit of grace, the cross, and all we've suffered

155

(1)

My eyes are saddened by so much they see

156

(1)

One way remains to loose me yet, dear Lord

156

(1)

The Text of the Poems

157

(2)

Translating Poetry

159

(6)

Acknowledgments

165

(2)

Notes

167

(18)

Bibliography

185

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The Complete Poems of Michelangelo

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