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

Sonetto XXXII
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE LIT SPA
Chosen for Diff
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: 118