Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Shofi Ahmed Jun 2022
Da Vinci code or more
mystique than that
cracking the secret  
only one that popped up
lost the tongue!
Michael R Burch Dec 2020
LEONARDO DA VINCI POEMS, EPIGRAMS AND QUOTES

These are my modern English translations of the poems, epigrams and quotes of Leonardo da Vinci. I believe the first six epigrams pertain to the current American election crisis …

Nothing enables authority like silence.—Leonardo da Vinci, translation by Michael R. Burch

The greatest deceptions spring from men’s own opinions.—Leonardo da Vinci, translation by Michael R. Burch

There are three classes of people: Those who see by themselves. Those who see only when they are shown. Those who refuse to see.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Blinding ignorance misleads us. Myopic mortals, open your eyes!—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It is easier to oppose evil from the beginning than at the end.—Leonardo da Vinci, translation by Michael R. Burch

Small minds continue to shrink, but those whose hearts are firm and whose consciences endorse their conduct, will persevere until death.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I am impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowledge is not enough; we must apply ourselves. Wanting and being willing are insufficient; we must act.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Time is sufficient for anyone who uses it wisely.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Once we have flown, we will forever walk the earth with our eyes turned heavenward, for there we were and will always long to return.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The great achievers rarely relaxed and let things happen to them. They set out and kick-started whatever happened.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Where the spirit does not aid and abet the hand there is no art.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Necessity is the mistress of mother nature's inventions.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Nature has no effect without cause, no invention without necessity.—Leonardo da Vinci, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Did Leonardo da Vinci anticipate Darwin with his comments about Nature and necessity being the mistress of her inventions? Yes, and his studies of comparative anatomy, including the intestines, led da Vinci to say explicitly that "apes, monkeys and the like" are not merely related to humans but are "almost of the same species." He was, indeed, a man ahead of his time, by at least 350 years.



Excerpts from “Paragone of Poetry and Painting” and Other Writings
by Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1500
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Sculpture requires light, received from above,
while a painting contains its own light and shade.

Painting is the more beautiful, the more imaginative, the more copious,
while sculpture is merely the more durable.

Painting encompasses infinite possibilities
which sculpture cannot command.

But you, O Painter, unless you can make your figures move,
are like an orator who can’t bring his words to life!

While as soon as the Poet abandons nature, he ceases to resemble the Painter;
for if the Poet abandons the natural figure for flowery and flattering speech,
he becomes an orator and is thus neither Poet nor Painter.

Painting is poetry seen but not heard,
while poetry is painting heard but not seen.

And if the Poet calls painting dumb poetry,
the Painter may call poetry blind painting.

Yet poor is the pupil who fails to surpass his master!
Shun those studies in which the work dies with the worker.

Because I find no subject especially useful or pleasing
and because those who preceded me appropriated every useful theme,
I will be like the beggar who comes late to the fair,
who must content himself with other buyers' rejects.
Thus, I will load my humble cart full of despised and rejected merchandise,
the refuse of so many other buyers,
and I will go about distributing it, not in the great cities,
but in the poorer towns,
selling at discounts whatever the wares I offer may be worth.

And what can I do when a woman plucks my heart?
Alas, how she triumphs over me, and yet I must persist!



The Point
by Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1500
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Here forms, colors, the character of the entire universe, contract to a point,
and that point is miraculous, marvelous …
O marvelous, O miraculous, O stupendous Necessity!
By your elegant laws you compel every effect to be the direct result of its cause,
by the shortest path possible.
Such are your miracles!



Old age, believe me, is a blessing. While it’s true you get gently shouldered off the stage, you’re awarded such a comfortable front row seat as spectator. — Confucius, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Improve yourself by others' writings, attaining freely what they purchased at the expense of experience. — Socrates, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Are mayflies missed by mountains? Do stars
applaud the glowworm’s stellar mimicry?
—Michael R. Burch



Sinking
by Michael R. Burch

for Virginia Woolf

Weigh me down with stones ...
     fill all the pockets of my gown ...
          I’m going down,
               mad as the world
                    that can’t recover,
                         to where even mermaids drown ...

Keywords/Tags: Leonardo da Vinci, epigram, epitaph, poem, quote, translation, silence, election, spring, nature, art, poetry, poet, poets

Published as the collection "Leonardo da Vinci Poems, Epigrams and Quotes"
Richie da poet Jun 2020
At first when my eyes saw you
My heart felt something for you
My soul wished to be with you
And the whole of my dreams were on you

My first fear was whether I could know you
Then it changed and I wished to get you
Now am happy I have you
But I fear I could lose you

I wish I could get all I want
And my wish is that you live to be mine
That would always hold your hand
And you forever hold mine

Wishes are not horses
But I wish they will become true
Dreams may not come true
But wish dream will be real
Richie
https://www.facebook.com/Richie-da-poet-107595550950485/
Na
LInk kangas Mar 2020
As it swims
underwater
its hostile
body scares
anything
in sight
it doesn't
give mercy
with its red body
the salmon
is a fierce predator
let me live May 2019
cos when i get mad i get big mad,
should have never did that get back,
bout to feel the wrath of a menace ,
in my bag, in my feelings,
im a bad lil ***** ya know....




Jhene Aiko
Lillian May Jun 2018
most visitors
                   usually imagine her
as a            stranger

       Just the same, she looks. But surely
                                                     Leonardo da Vinci
would have understood her.
                             Leonardo would have relished,
                    

                                     And

                                                  remembered
no shortage of familiar metier real
     (material) aye attest
welling up within thy breast
merely a predicament how to winnow

     junk bonded barnacled
     accretion encrusted
     amidst gems buried
     within treasure chest,

yet vigilant to sift,
     viz figurative fine tooth comb
     uprooting excrescence laired plethora
     incognito, sans faux

     couture doggerel habiliment dressed
necessitating painstaking
     poetic rock climbing
     ala scaling Mount Everest

imbedding, hooking, grappling
     fingered duple crampons
     aye con fessed
to myself, the futility

     to wrest Shakespearean nuggets,
     which analogy hyperbole you guessed
nor does modesty allow me feeble effort
     (trite) on par with August bard,

who would rank him,
     the highest allotted value
     upon assigned (absolute)
     value of playing card,

hence tis the gold standard thee
     verse a tile scribe based
     at Stratford on Avon
this here wordsmith wields

     his own literary might always on guard
to stave reprehensible tar tarred plaque
     like encrustation glued hard
akin to a geode methodical
     mother lode extraction jarred

by the slightest distraction,
     thus with bold
ness sigh hermetically
     seal off every cerebral fold
vectors against superfluous mind chatter
     can upend fragile tenuous hold

when merest wisp of nearly
     elusive mental thread escapes,
     i feign scold
ding this paperback
     bestseller wannabe with told

cha so Harris, thus
     keep dreaming envisioning
     an green acred Edenic demesne
     sprawling across wide webbed wold.
Next page