| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Love’s Entreaty | | By Michelangelo (1475–1564) |
| | Translated by John Addington Symonds
THOU knowest, love, I know that thou dost know | |
| That I am here more near to thee to be, | |
| And knowest that I know thou knowest me: | |
| What means it then that we are sundered so? | |
| If they are true, these hopes that from thee flow, | 5 |
| If it is real, this sweet expectancy, | |
| Break down the wall that stands ’twixt me and thee; | |
| For pain in prison pent hath double woe. | |
| Because in thee I love, O my loved lord, | |
| What thou best lovest, be not therefore stern: | 10 |
| Souls burn for souls, spirits to spirits cry! | |
| I seek the splendour in thy fair face stored; | |
| Yet living man that beauty scarce can learn, | |
| And he who fain would find it, first must die. | | | | |
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