Michelangelo (1475–1564)

Translated by John Addington Symonds

THOU knowest, love, I know that thou dost know

That I am here more near to thee to be,

And knowest that I know thou knowest me:

What means it then that we are sundered so?

If they are true, these hopes that from thee flow,

If it is real, this sweet expectancy,

Break down the wall that stands ’twixt me and thee;

For pain in prison pent hath double woe.

Because in thee I love, O my loved lord,

What thou best lovest, be not therefore stern:

Souls burn for souls, spirits to spirits cry!

I seek the splendour in thy fair face stored;

Yet living man that beauty scarce can learn,

And he who fain would find it, first must die.