Michelangelo -- Poem (1554-09), “Giunto è già ‘l corso della vita mia” (Rime 285), ll. 1–4 [tr. Longfellow, “Old Age” (1878)]

Dave — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 22:13:13 +0000

The course of my long life hath reached at last,
In fragile bark o’er a tempestuous sea,
The common harbor, where must rendered be,
Account of all the actions of the past.

[Giunto è già ’l corso della vita mia,
con tempestoso mar, per fragil barca,
al comun porto, ov’a render si varca
conto e ragion d’ogni opra trista e pia.]

Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian artist, architect, poet [Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni]
Poem (1554-09), “Giunto è già ‘l corso della vita mia” (Rime 285), ll. 1–4 [tr. Longfellow, “Old Age” (1878)]

Included in a letter to Giorgio Vasari. The translation by Longfellow is famous enough that it is sometimes credited directly to him, rather than as a translation.

(Source (Italian)). Other translations:

Now hath my life across a stormy sea
Like a frail bark reached that wide port where all
Are bidden, ere the final reckoning fall
Of good and evil for eternity.
[tr. Symonds (1878), No. 65 "On the Brink of Death"]

Arrived already is my life's brief course,
Through a most stormy sea, in a frail bark,
At mankind's common port and at the shores
Where one accounts for one's deeds, bright or dark.
[tr. Tusiani (1960), No. 147]

The voyage of my life at last has reached
across a stormy sea, in a fragile boat,
the common port all must pass through, to give
an accounting for every evil and pious deed.
[tr. Saslow (1991), No. 285]

Already now my life has run its course,
And, like a fragile boat on a rough sea
I reach the place where everyone must cross
And give account of life's activity.
[tr. Jennings (1961), No. 65]

WIST Quotations

Michelangelo -- Poem (1554-09), “Giunto è già ‘l corso della vita mia” (Rime 285), ll. 1–4 [tr. Longfellow, “Old Age” (1878)]