Ill hath he chosen his part who seeks to please The worthless world

From Selected poems from Michelangelo Buonarroti, with translations from various sources edited by Edna D. Cheney

To Luigi Del Eiccio

by Michelangelo Buonarroti

Ill hath he chosen his part who seeks to please 

The worthless world, — ill hath he chosen his part, 

For often must he wear the look of ease 

When grief is in his heart ; 

And often in his hours of happier feeling 

With sorrow must his countenance be hung, 

And ever his own better thoughts concealing, 

Must he in stupid Grandeur's praise be loud, 

And to the errors of the ignorant crowd 

Assent with lying tongue. 

Thus much would I conceal that none should know 

What secret cause I have for silent woe; 

And, taught by many a melancholy proof 

That those whom Fortune favors it pollutes, 

I, from the blind and faithless world aloof, 

Nor fear its envy, nor desire its praise, 

But choose my path through solitary ways.