peace nowhere. When I see you, you are to me what food is to one who is hungry … When you smile at me or motion to me in the street, I take fire like powder … When you speak to me, I blush, lose my voice, and suddenly my great desire vanishes. …"[1]
Then come sorrowful lamentations, such as:
"Ah! infinite suffering, which tears my heart, when it thinks that she whom I love so much loves me not! How shall I live? …"
"… Ahi, che doglia 'nfinita
Sente 'l mio cor, quando li torna a mente,
Che quella ch'io tant'amo amor non sente!
Come restero 'n vita? …"[2]
These lines, also, are written next to some studies for the "Madonna" of the Medici Chapel:
"Alone, I remain burning in the shade, when the sun deprives the world of its rays. Every one rejoices, but I, stretched on the ground and stricken with sorrow, moan and weep."[3]
Love is absent from Michael Angelo's powerful sculpture and paintings, which he reserved for only his most
- ↑ "Poems," xxxvi. (See Appendix, v.)
- ↑ "Poems," xiii. A celebrated madrigal, which the composer, Bartolommeo Tromboncino set to music, before 1518, is of the same period:
"How shall I have the courage to live without you, my treasure, if, on leaving, I cannot ask for your assistance? These sobs and tears and sighs, with which my wretched heart follows you, have shown you, madame, my approaching death and martyrdom. But if it is true that absence will never obliterate my faithful servitude, I leave my heart with you. My heart is no longer mine." ("Poems," xi. See Appendix, vi.) - ↑
"Sol' io ardendo all'ombra mi rimango,
Quand' el sol de suo razi el mondo spoglia;
Ogni altro per piaciere, e io per doglia,
Prostrato in terra, mi lamento e piangho."
("Poems," xxii.)
