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by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564)

Sonetto XXXI
 (Sung text for setting by B. Britten)
 Matches base text
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE LIT SPA
A che più debb'io mai l'intensa voglia
Sfogar con pianti o con parole meste,
Se di tal sorte 'l ciel, che l'alma veste,
Tard' o per tempo, alcun mai non ne spoglia?
A che 'l cor lass' a più morir m'invoglia,
S'altri pur dee morir? Dunque per queste
Luci l'ore del fin fian men moleste;
Ch'ogn' altro ben val men ch'ogni mia doglia.
Però se 'l colpo, ch'io ne rub' e 'nvolo,
Schifar non poss'; almen, s'è destinato,
Ch entrerà 'nfra la dolcezza e 'l duolo?
Se vint' e pres' i' debb'esser beato,
Maraviglia non è se nud' e solo,
Resto prigion d'un Cavalier armato.

Composition:

    Set to music by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Sonetto XXXI", op. 22 no. 2 (1940), published 1943 [ voice and piano ], from Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, no. 2

Text Authorship:

  • by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), appears in Rime, no. 98

See other settings of this text.

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

  • ENG English (Carl Johengen) , "Sonnet XXXI", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (John Addington Symonds) , "To Tommaso de' Cavalieri: Love's lordship", from 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) , "What point is there in still giving vent to my intense longing", written 2002, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Sonnet XXXI", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • LIT Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba) (Giedrius Prunskus) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Juan Henríquez Concepción) , copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 105

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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