Se ben concetto ha la divina parte…
Se ben concetto ha la divina parte
il volto e gli atti d’alcun, po’ di quello
doppio valor con breve e vil modello
dà vita a’ sassi, e non è forza d’arte.
Né altrimenti in più rustiche carte,
anz’una pronta man prenda ‘l pennello,
fra ‘ dotti ingegni il più accorto e bello
pruova e rivede, e suo storie comparte.
Simil di me model di poca istima
mie parto fu, per cosa alta e perfetta
da voi rinascer po’, donna alta e degna.
Se ‘l poco accresce, e ‘l mie superchio lima
vostra mercé, qual penitenzia aspetta
mie fiero ardor, se mi gastiga e ‘nsegna?
Il vostro Michelangelo Buonarroti

If by its heaven-sent power the mind conceives
If by its heaven-sent power the mind conceives
a true version of face and form, then roughs in clay
a crude model, the workman’s hand and heart in play
confer on cold stone a life, and not just by skill.
The same with paint: not a brush is raised until
mind sifts, from its cunning cues, the apt and best
—this even with rough designs—rejects the rest
as it culls, deploys, thinks better of, retrieves.
I’m like that model, as crude as you’d come across,
exalted lady, till born again through you,
elate, pristine, as your cleansing auras reach me.
Where I lack, you add; where I’m rough, you file and gloss
in your kindly care for me. What amends are due
for my furores past, as your ways rebuke and teach me?
Yours Michelangelo Buonarroti