Two Epigrams on Michelangelo’s Night, Translated (and Answered), by Julie Steiner

Night, part of the tomb for Giuliano di Lorenzo de’ Medici (Florence), by Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italy) 1526–1531. Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Two Epigrams on Michelangelo’s Night, Translated (and Answered), by Julie Steiner

This Night you see asleep in soft obliques
of sculpted stone? An Angel was her maker.
And since she sleeps, she must have life. Just wake her,
if doubtful; you’ll believe it when she speaks.

Giovan Battista Strozzi, ca. 1544, translated by Julie Steiner

“Sleep’s dear to me -- to be of stone, yet dearer --
while what goes on is shameful and distressing.
Not seeing, not perceiving, is a blessing.
Don’t wake me, then! Speak low, and come no nearer.”

Michelangelo Buonarroti, ca. 1545-6, translated by Julie Steiner

Belly in folds, stone breasts skewed left and right,
I, too, have slept propped awkwardly, exhausted,
oblivious while chaos has accosted.
Your limbs speak new-mom semaphore, good Night.

Julie Steiner, 2026

**
​
La Notte che tu vedi in sì dolci atti
dormir fu da un Angelo scolpita
in questo sasso, e perchè dorme ha vita :
destala, se nol credi, e parleratti.

Giovan Battista di Lorenzo Strozzi

Caro m’ è ’l sonno, e più l’ esser di sasso
Mentre che ’l danno e la vergogna dura :
Non veder, non sentir, m’ è gran ventura ;
Però non mi destar, deh! parla basso.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

**

Translator’s Note: In Greek and Roman mythology, Night was the mother of several offspring, including in some versions the twins Death and Sleep. Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) of Florence carved this figure of Night between 1526 and 1531, for the tomb for Giuliano di Lorenzo de’ Medici (1479-1516) in the Sagrestia Nuova of the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence. The sculptor’s reply to the epigram by the Florentine noble and songwriter Giovan Battista Strozzi (1504-1571) implies criticism of the governance of the then-current duke of Florence, Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574).

Julie Steiner is the pseudonym of a recovering classicist in San Diego, California. Links to many of her published poems and verse translations are posted at Off-Piste on Mount Parnassus (offpisteonmountp.substack.com).