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THE LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO

XII

See p. 94, note 1

 
Per sempre a morte e prima a voi fu' dato
Sol per un ora e con dilecto tanto
Porta' bellezza e po' lasciai tal pianto,
Che 'l me' sarebbe non esser ma' nato.[1]

(" Poems," Ixxiii, 29.)

  
S' i' fu' gia vivo, tu sol, pietra, il sai,
Che qui mi serri, e s'alcun mi ricorda,
Gli par sogniar : si morte è presta e 'ngarda,
Che quel chie è stato non par fusse mai.[2]

(Ixxiii, 22.)

 
Chi qui morto mi piange indarno spera,
Bagniando I'ossa e 'l mie sepulcro, tucto
Ritornarmi com' arbor secho al fructo;
C'uom morto non risurge a primavera.[3]

(Ixxiii, 21.)

XIII

See p. 98

Veggio co be vostr' ochi un dolce lume,
Che co mie ciechi gia veder non posso.

  1. " I who have been given to you only for an hour have been given for ever to death. The more my beauty has charmed, the more tears it has left. It would have been better had I never been born."
  2. " If ever I have lived, you alone, stone which encloses me here, know it. And if any one remember me, he seems to dream. Death is so rapid that that which has been seems as though it had never been."
  3. " He who weeps for my death, bathing my bones and my tomb, hopes in vain that I shall flower again like a winter tree. Dead men do not come to life again in the spring."