Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.
The Transfiguration of BeautyMichelangelo (14751564)
Translated by John Addington Symonds
(A Dialogue with Love)
(A Dialogue with Love)
N
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.