Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Gli astrologi antevista.


Once on a time the astronomers foresaw
        The coming of a star to madden men:
        Thus warned they fled the land, thinking that when
        The folk were crazed, they'd hold the reins of law

When they returned the realm to overawe,
        They prayed those maniacs to quit cave and den,
        And use their old good customs once again;
        But these made answer with fist, tooth, and claw:

So that the wise men were obliged to rule
        Themselves like lunatics to shun grim death,
        Seeing the biggest maniac now was king.

Stifling their sense, they lived, aping the fool,
        In public praising act and word and thing
        Just as the whims of madmen swayed their breath.

Non é brutto il Demon.


The Devil's not so ugly as they paint;
        He's well with all, compact of courtesy:
        Real heroism is real piety:
        Before small truth great falsehoods shrink and faint
If pots stain worse than pipkins, it were quaint
        To charge the pipkins with impurity:
        Freedom I crave: who craves not to be free?
        Yet life that must be feigned for, leaves a taint.
Ill conduct brings repentance?--If you prate
        This wise to me, why prate not thus to all
        Philosophers and prophets, and to Christ?
Not too much learning, as some arrogate,
        But the small brains of dullards have sufficed
        To make us wretched and the world enthrall.

Mentre l'acquila invola.


While yet the eagle preys, and growls the bear;
        While roars the lion; while the crow defies
        The lamb who raised our race above the skies;
        While yet the dove laments to the deaf air;
While, mixed with goodly wheat, darnel and tare
        Within the field of human nature rise;--
        Let that ungodly sect, profanely wise,
        That scorns our hope, feed, fatten, and beware!
Soon comes the day when those grim giants fell,
        Famed through the world, dyed deep with sanguine hue,
        Whom with feigned flatteries you applaud, shall be
Swept from the earth, and sunk in horrid Hell,
        Girt round with flames, to weep and wail with you,
        In doleful dungeons everlastingly.

La scuola inimicissima.


You sect most adverse to the good and true,
        Degenerate from your origin divine,
        Pastured on lies and shadows by the line
        Of Thais, Sinon, Judas, Homer! You,
Thus saith the Spirit, when the retinue
        Of saints with Christ returns on earth to shine,
        When the fifth angel's vial pours condign
        Vengeance with awful ire and torments due,--
You shall be girt with gloom; your lips profane,
        Disloyal tongues, and savage teeth shall grind
        And gnash with fury fell and anger vain:
In Malebolge your damned souls confined
        On fiery marle, for increment of pain,
        Shall see the saved rejoice with mirth of mind.

Se fu nel mondo.


If men were happy in that age of gold,
        We yet may hope to see mild Saturn's reign;
        For all things that were buried live again,
        By time's revolving cycle forward rolled.
Yet this the fox, the wolf, the crow, made bold
        By fraud and perfidy, deny--in vain:
        For God that rules, the signs in heaven, the train
        Of prophets, and all hearts this faith uphold.
If thine and mine were banished in good sooth
        From honour, pleasure, and utility,
        The world would turn, I ween, to Paradise;
Blind love to modest love with open eyes;
        Cunning and ignorance to living truth;
        And foul oppression to fraternity.

Temo che per morir.


I fear that by my death the human race
        Would gain no vantage. Thus I do not die.
        So wide is this vast cage of misery
        That flight and change lead to no happier place.
Shifting our pains, we risk a sorrier case:
        All worlds, like ours, are sunk in agony:
        Go where we will, we feel; and this my cry
        I may forget like many an old disgrace.
Who knows what doom is mine? The Omnipotent
        Keeps silence; nay, I know not whether strife
        Or peace was with me in some earlier life.
Philip in a worse prison me hath pent
        These three days past--but not without God's will.
        Stay we as God decrees: God doth no ill.

Non Licida, nè Driope.


Lycoris, Lycidas, and Dryope
        Cannot, dear Niblo, save thy name from death;
        Shadows that fleet, and flowers that yield their breath,
        Match not the Love that craves infinity.
The beauty thou dost worship dwells in thee:
        Within thy soul divine it harboureth:
        This also bids my spirit soar, and saith
        Words that unsphere for me heaven's harmony.
Make then thine inborn lustre beam and shine
        With love of goodness; goodness cannot fail:
        From God alone let praise immense be thine.
My soul is tired of telling o'er the tale
        With men: she calls on thine: she bids thee go
        Into God's school with tablets white as snow.

Seco ogni coif a è doglia.


All crime is its own torment, bearing woe
        To mind or body or decrease of fame;
        If not at once, still step by step our name
        Or blood or friends or fortune it brings low.
But if our will do not resent the blow,
        We have not sinned. That penance hath no blame
        Which Magdalen found sweet: purging our shame,
        Self-punishment is virtue, all men know.
The consciousness of goodness pure and whole
        Makes a man fully blest; but misery
        Springs from false conscience, blinded in its pride.
This Simon Peter meant when he replied
        To Simon Magus, that the prescient soul
        Hath her own proof of immortality.

Se Dio ci dà la vita.


God gives us life, and God our life preserves;
        Nay, all our happiness on Him doth rest:
        Why then should love of God inflame man's breast
        Less than his lady and the lord he serves?
Through mean and wanton ignorance he swerves,
        And worships a false Good, divinely dressed;
        Love cannot soar to what it never guessed,
        But stoops its flight, and the thralled soul unnerves.
Here too is man deceived. He yields his own
        To spend on others. Yet in vile delight
        God's splendour still shines through love's earthliness.
But we embrace the loss, the lure alone
        Love fools us with. That glimpse of heavenly light,
        That foretaste of eternal Good, we miss.

La fabbrica del mondo.


The fabric of the world--earth, air, and skies--
        Each particle thereof and tiniest part
        Designed for special ends--proclaims the art
        Of an almighty Maker good and wise.
Nathless the lawless brutes, our crimes and lies,
        The joys of vicious men, the good man's smart,
        All creatures swerving from their ends, impart
        Doubts that the Ruler is nor good nor wise.
Can it then be that boundless Power, Love, Mind,
        Lets others reign, the while He takes repose?
        Hath He grown old, or hath He ceased to heed?
Nay, one God made and rules: He shall unwind
        The tangled skein; the hidden law disclose,
        Whereby so many sinned in thought and deed.

Nessun ti venne a dir.


Who comes and saith: 'A Tyrant, lo, am I!'
        And, 'I am Antichrist!' what man will swear?
        The crafty rogue, hiding his poisonous ware,
        Sells you what slays your soul, for sanctity.
Cheats, brigands, prostitutes, and all that fry,
        Not having fashioned so devout a snare,
        Appear worse sinners than perhaps they are;
        For where the craft's small, small's the villainy;
You're on your guard. The meek Samaritan
        Makes way before those guileful Pharisees,
        Though God assigned to him the higher place.
        Not words nor wonders prove a virtuous man,
But deeds and acts. How many deities
        Hath this false standard given the human race!

Il vero amante.


He who loves truly, grows in force and might;
        For beauty and the image of his love
        Expand his spirit: whence he burns to prove
        Adventures high, and holds all perils light.
If thus a lady's love dilate the knight,
        What glories and what joy all joys above
        Shall not the heavenly splendour, joined by love
        Unto our flesh-imprisoned soul, excite?
Once freed, she would become one sphere immense
        Of love, power, wisdom, filled with Deity,
        Elate with wonders of the eternal Sense.
But we like sheep and wolves war ceaselessly:
        That love we never seek, that light intense,
        Which would exalt us to infinity.

Questo amor singolar.


This love of self sinks man in sinful sloth:
        Yet, if he seek to live, he needs must feign
        Sense, goodness, courage. Thus he dwells in pain,
        A sphinx, twy-souled, a false self-stunted growth.
Honours, applause, and wealth these torments soothe;
        Till jealousy, contrasting his foul stain
        With virtues eminent, by spur and rein
        Drives him to slay, steal, poison, break his oath.
But he who loves our common Father, hath
        All men for brothers, and with God doth joy
        In whatsoever worketh for their bliss.
Good Francis called the birds upon his path
        Brethren; to him the fishes were not coy.--
        Oh, blest is he who comprehendeth this!

Babel disfatta.


The golden head was Babylon; she passed:
        Persia came next, the silvern breast: whereto
        Joined brazen flank and belly--these are you,
        Ye men of Macedon! Now Rome's the last.
Rome on two iron legs towered tall and vast;
        But at her feet were toes of clay, that drew
        Downfall: those scattered tribes erewhile she knew
        For lords; now 'neath her fatal sway they're cast.
Ah thirsty soil! From your parched fallow fumes
        A smoke of pride, vain-glory, cruelty,
        That blinds, infects, and blackens, and consumes!
To Daniel, to the Bible you refuse
        Your rebel sense; for it is still your use
        To screen yourself with lies and sophistry.

La gran Donna.


That Lady who to Caesar came in state
        Upon the Rubicon, what time she feared
        Ruin from those strange races who appeared
        Erewhile to build her empire strong and great,
Now stays with limbs dispersed and lacerate,
        A bondslave, shorn of all her pomp revered:
        Nor seems it now that Dinah's shame can gird
        Simeon or Levi to avenge her fate.
If then Jerusalem doth not repair
        To Nazareth or Athens, where did reign
        Wisdom of God or man in days of yore,
None shall arise her honours to restore:
        For Herods are all strangers; when they swear
        To save the Saviour's seed, their oath is vain.

Dov' è la libertà.


Where are the freedom and high feats that spring
        From fatherhood so fair as Deity?
        Fleas are no sons of men, although they be
        Flesh-born: brave thoughts and deeds this honour bring.
If princes great or small seek anything
        Adverse to good and God's authority,
        Which of you dares refuse? Nay, who is he
        That doth not cringe to do their pleasuring?
So then with soul and blood in verity
        You serve base gold, vices, and worthless men--
        God with lip-service only and with lies,
Sunk in the slough of dire idolatry:
        If Ignorance begat these errors, then
        To Reason turn for sonship and be wise!

Allor potrete orar.


Then shall ye pray with every hour that flies;
        Thy kingdom come, and let Thy will be done
        On earth as in the spheres above the sun,
        When all we hoped and wished shall bless our eyes.
Poets shall see their Age of Gold arise,
        Fairer than feigned in hymn or orison;
        Yea, all the realm by Adam's sin undone
        Shall be restored in sinless Paradise.
Philosophers shall govern for their own
        That perfect commonwealth whereof they write,
        The which on earth as yet was never known.
Judah to Sion shall return with might
        Of greater wonders than shook Pharaoh's throne,
        From Babylon, to bless the prophets' sight.

Vilissima progenie.


Ye vile offscourings! with unblushing face
        Dare ye claim sonship to our heavenly Sire,
        Who serve brute vices, crouching in the mire
        To hounds and conies, beasts that ape our race?
Such truckling is called virtue by the base
        Hucksters of sophistry, the priest and friar,--
        Gilt claws of tyrant brutes,--who lie for hire,
        Preaching that God delights in this disgrace.
Look well, ye brainless folk! Do fathers hold
        Their children slaves to serfs? Do sheep obey
        The witless ram? Why make a beast your king?
If there are no archangels, let your fold
        Be governed by the sense of all: why stray
        From men to worship every filthy thing?