CELESTIAL LOVE
by: Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1475-1564)
- O mortal
thing enthralled these longing eyes
- When perfect peace in thy fair face I found;
- But far within, where all is holy ground,
- My soul felt Love, her comrade of the skies:
- For she was born with God in Paradise;
- Nor all the shows of beauty shed around
- This fair false world her wings to earth have bound:
- Unto the Love of Loves aloft she flies.
- Nay, things that suffer death, quench not the fire
- Of deathless spirits; nor eternity
- Serves sordid Time, that withers all things rare.
- Not love but lawless impulse is desire:
- That slays the soul; our love makes still more fair
- Our friends on earth, fairer in death on high.
This English translation of "Celestial
Love" was composed by John Addington Symonds (1840-1893). |
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