Michelangelo (1475–1564)

Translated by John Addington Symonds
(A Dialogue with Love)

NAY, prithee tell me, Love, when I behold

My lady, do mine eyes her beauty see

In truth, or dwells that loveliness in me

Which multiplies her grace a thousandfold?

Thou needs must know; for thou with her of old

Comest to stir my soul’s tranquillity;

Yet would I not seek one sigh less, or be

By loss of that loved flame, more simply cold.—

The beauty thou discernest, all is hers;

But grows in radiance as it soars on high,

Through mortal eyes unto the soul above:

’Tis there transfigured; for the soul confers

On what she holds, her own divinity:

And this transfigured beauty wins thy love.