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by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564)

Non so se s'è la desïata luce
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
Non so se s'è la desïata luce
Del suo primo fattor, che l' alma sente;
O se dalla memoria della gente
Alcun'altra beltà nel cor traluce;

O se fama o se sogno alcun produce
Agli occhi manifesto, al cor presente;
Di sè lasciando un non so che cocente,
Ch'è forse or quel ch'a pianger mi conduce;

Quel ch'i' sento e ch'i' cerco: e chi mi guidi
Meco non è; nè so ben veder dove
Trovar mel possa, e par c' altri mel mostri.

Questo, signor, m'avvien, po' ch'i' vi vidi;
C'un dolce amaro, un sí e no mi muove:
Certo saranno stati gli occhi vostri.

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Text Authorship:

  • by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), no title, appears in Rime, no. 76 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892 - 1988), "Non so se s'è la desïata luce", KSS 36 no. 2 (1923), published 2005, first performed 1980 [ voice and orchestra ], from Cinque sonetti di Michelagniolo Buonarroti, no. 2, Bath, The Sorabji Archive; critical edition [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Walter Heinrich Robert-Tornow (1852 - 1895) ; composed by Hugo Wolf.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) , no title, appears in Michelangelo-Übertragungen ; composed by Anton Schoendlinger.
    • Go to the text.

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (John Addington Symonds) , "Love's Loadstone", appears in The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella now for the first time translated into rhymed English, first published 1878
  • ENG English (Charles Hopkins) , "I do not know if it is the longed-for light", written 2002, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Sophie Hasenclever) , from Michelangelo: Gedichte und Briefe, first published 1907


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-13
Line count: 14
Word count: 105

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