My lady, these eyes see vividly—far, near—
your radiant face, wherever it is—here, there.
Where eyes can go, however, our feet forbear,
forbidden to bring hands, arms to rendezvous.
    The soul, intelligence uncorrupt and true,
can, thanks to the eye, aspire to your beauty’s height,
since free to fly, not flesh-bound. No such flight
is permitted, even for love, to bodies here.
    Our bodies, so mortal, cloddish without wings,
can’t follow the least of angels in their zone.
Eyes, only, exult and revel in all they do.
    Lady, if you’ve such power in celestial things
as here on earth, make all of me eye alone,
all eye, to delight, the whole of me, in you.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, “My lady, these eyes see vividly—far, near”, translated by John Frederick Nims