The Complete Poems of MichelangeloThere is no artist more celebrated than Michelangelo. Yet the magnificence of his achievements as a visual artist often overshadow his devotion to poetry. Michelangelo used poetry to express what was too personal to display in sculpture or painting. John Frederick Nims has brought the entire body of Michelangelo's verse, from the artist's ardent twenties to his anguished and turbulent eighties, to life in English in this unprecedented collection. The result is a tantalizing glimpse into a most fascinating mind. "Wonderful. . . . Nims gives us Michelangelo whole: the polymorphous love sonneteer, the political allegorist, and the solitary singer of madrigals."—Kirkus Reviews "A splendid, fresh and eloquent translation. . . . Nims, an eminent poet and among the best translators of our time, conveys the full meaning and message of Michelangelo's love sonnets and religious poems in fluently rhymed, metrical forms."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch "The best so far. . . . Nims is best at capturing the sound and sense of Michelangelo's poetic vocabulary."—Choice "Surely the most compelling translations of Michelangelo currently available in English."—Ronald L. Martinez, Washington Times |
Contents
II Three Loves 15321547 | 36 |
III The Four Last Things 15471564 | 136 |
The Text of the Poems | 157 |
Translating Poetry | 159 |
Acknowledgments | 165 |
Notes | 167 |
Bibliography | 185 |
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Common terms and phrases
alive arms beautiful and cruel beauty beginning believes body born bound breath Cavalieri close comes dead death delight desire divine early earth eyes face fall fate feel fire flame flesh gift give given grace grief hand heart heaven hope it's keep kill kind lady lady beautiful late later least leaves less letter life's light live look Lord love's lovers Madrigal means Medici Michelangelo mind mortal nature never night once pain passion perhaps pleasure poems poet poetry poor Probably reads reference rhyme Riccio seems sense sent sigh Sonnet soon soul spirit stone sweet tears tell thanks there's things thought tomb translation true turned Unfinished Vittoria Colonna what's worse written wrote young