S O N N E T

X X X I I

 

Michelangelo Buonarroti

 

...If fortune, good or ill, is shared between
Two equal loves, and if one wish can govern
Two hearts, and nothing evil intervene:

If one soul joins two bodies fast for ever
And if, on the same wings, these two can fly,
And if one dart of love can pierce and sever
The vital organs of both equally:

If both love one another with the same
Passion, and if each other's good is sought
By both, if taste and pleasure and desire

Bind such a faithful love-knot, who can claim
Either with envy, scorn, contempt or ire,
The power to untie so fast a knot?

 

 

 

 

The Sonnets of Michelangelo,  1970

 

Doubleday & Co. New York. Translated by Elizabeth Jennings