English poem
To Luigi Del Riccio, After The Death Of Cecchino Bracci.
by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564)
A pena prima. Scarce had I seen for the first time his eyes Which to your living eyes were life and light, When closed at last in death's injurious night He opened them on God in Paradise. I know it and I weep, too late made wise: Yet was the fault not mine; for death's fell spite Robbed my desire of that supreme delight, Which in your better memory never dies. Therefore, Luigi, if the task be mine To make unique Cecchino smile in stone For ever, now that earth hath made him dim, If the beloved within the lover shine, Since art without him cannot work alone, You must I carve to tell the world of him.
More by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
- To Giorgio Vasari. On The Brink Of Death.
- To Giorgio Vasari. On The Lives Of The Painters.
- To Giorgio Vasari. Vanity Of Vanities.
- To Giovanni Da Pistoja. On The Painting Of The Sistine Chapel.
- To Luigi Del Riccio.
- To Monsignor Lodovico Beccadelli. Urbino.
- To Pope Julius II.
- To Tommaso De' Cavalieri. Love The Light-Giver.