by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564)
Translation © by Carl Johengen

Sonetto XXXII
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE LIT SPA
S'un casto amor, s'una pietà superna,
S'una fortuna infra dua amanti equale,
S'un'aspra sorte all'un dell'altro cale,
S'un spirto, s'un voler duo cor governa;
S'un'anima in duo corpi è fatta etterna,
Ambo levando al cielo e con pari ale;
S'amor c'un colpo e d'un dorato strale
Le viscer di duo petti arda e discerna;
S'amar l'un l'altro, e nessun se medesmo,
D'un gusto e d'un diletto, a tal mercede,
C'a un fin voglia l'uno e l'altro porre;
Se mille e mille non sarien centesmo
A tal nodo d'amore, a tanta fede;
E sol l'isdegno il può rompere e sciorre.

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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 99

Sonnet XXXII
Language: English  after the Italian (Italiano) 
 If there is a chaste love, a heavenly pity,
 an equal fortune between two lovers,
 a bitter fate shared by both,
 and if a single spirit and one will governs two hearts;
 if one soul in two bodies is made eternal,
 raising both to heaven on the same wings;
 if love with one blow and one golden arrow
 can burn and pierce two hearts to the core;
 if each loves the other rather than himself,
 with a pleasure and delight so rewarding,
 that to the same end they both strive;
 if thousands upon thousands are not worth a hundredth
 part of such a loving bond of such a faith;
 then shall anger alone break and dissolve it?

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  • Translation from Italian (Italiano) to English copyright © by Carl Johengen, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 117