Complete Poems of Michelangelo

The Complete Poems of Michelangelo by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, translated by Joseph Tusiani, 166 pages

     Love wakens us, and gives us wings for higher

     Heavens, ennobling our initial aim;

     Is the first step through which the soul, in shame

     And weariness, forgets the earth for its sire.

Yet it is precisely Michelangelo's earthiness that sets him apart from his Renaissance peers.  The poet refers again and again to the labor of sculpting, a hard reality far removed from Petrarch's bucolic pastorals.  Old age, night, and death are recurring themes, not usually as enemies but as friends.

     For one can only find

     Beauty when it is late, and one is dying.

Love and desire are the subject of most of the poems, but even here Michelangelo retains perspective and humor.

     Oh, your face is much sweeter than mustard,

     Fairer than turnip.  A snail has pushed its vehicle

     On it, and made it as it is - so lustered.

His earthly love and labor are dominated by frustration and disappointment, but are redeemed by the hope of a higher consummation.

     Oh, yes, my soul remembers its first love,

     And loves and honors its own great reward:

     Loving the servant, one adores the lord.