Vittoria Colonna’s Sonnets to Michelangelo

Vittoria Colonna’s Sonnets to Michelangelo
Recomposed by Anna Key

No. 9

Today she was born who gave birth to God;
time wound and unwound in her sacred womb
where she became what she was before, loom
upon which eternity was woven. Guide
me, Holy Mother, body of light, laud
of angels; like a flower in your room
turn my face toward your son and make me bloom;
let me stand one bright day loving and unflawed.
So unlike you now, full of spite and rank
impatience, I cry out like a child, loud
and helpless, trying with the few words I 
have to let go of all in me that’s proud,
to ask of everything I do why and why,
to say, with Peter, I walked before I sank. 

No. 18

If the heavens gave up a shining light
to set fire to the earth so that it burns
for our salvation, what proud ice unlearns
the fire in our frozen minds so that we fight 
against the fire to preserve our cold night?
The body resists the fire and yearns
for comfort, but the searching spirit turns
toward it; how to get the body past spite
to joyful embrace of its decrepit state,
how to suffer pain and want, want and pain
willingly; to learn to give up, to wait;
to trust that all this torment is not in vain.
Lord, help me hold to the difficult, hate
the easy, commit to fire and strain.