Never Say It Is Not Me
I taste what you taste,
I know the kind of lyrics that you most like,
I know which sounds will become resplendent
in your mind
and bring such pleasure to your feet
that they will need to jump or whirl.
When anything touches or enter your body,
Never say it is not me,
My lips are now burning and everywhere.
I am running from every corner of this earth and sky -
just wanting to kiss you.
I am every particle of wheat and dust -
I am rioting at your soul's door,
I am spinning midair like golden, fallen leaves
Trying to win your glance.
I am sweetly rolling against your walls and shores all night
even though you are asleep.
I am singing from the mouth of animals and birds
My dear, when anything ever touches or enters your body
never say that it is not me - for God is just trying,
the Beloved is just trying, to get close.
Rushing to your side from every corner
of existence, needing to say,
"I am yours."
I can appreciate this ecstatic proclamation of love - the urgency, the visceral need. Hafiz had his dramatically romantic moments and other romantic poets (Neruda, Blake, Byron, Poe, Shelley, Wordsworth) of course have had theirs. And this is phenomenal, ecstasy has its place in Eros.
Conversely, when the initial passion and euphoria fade away, that is when (in my opinion) love answers the question of its own longevity. Is what you have eternal? Will you continue to run from all corners of existence and nooks of the world to say "I am yours", one thousand times over? And over again? And if the answer is yes, what is the "formula" for that? Obviously, there is no one right response, but Rilke offered a good one.
“Love consists of this: two solitudes that meet, greet, and protect each other. The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.”
I hope I always see the one I love as a shooting star against the universe.
I taste what you taste,
I know the kind of lyrics that you most like,
I know which sounds will become resplendent
in your mind
and bring such pleasure to your feet
that they will need to jump or whirl.
When anything touches or enter your body,
Never say it is not me,
My lips are now burning and everywhere.
I am running from every corner of this earth and sky -
just wanting to kiss you.
I am every particle of wheat and dust -
I am rioting at your soul's door,
I am spinning midair like golden, fallen leaves
Trying to win your glance.
I am sweetly rolling against your walls and shores all night
even though you are asleep.
I am singing from the mouth of animals and birds
My dear, when anything ever touches or enters your body
never say that it is not me - for God is just trying,
the Beloved is just trying, to get close.
Rushing to your side from every corner
of existence, needing to say,
"I am yours."
I can appreciate this ecstatic proclamation of love - the urgency, the visceral need. Hafiz had his dramatically romantic moments and other romantic poets (Neruda, Blake, Byron, Poe, Shelley, Wordsworth) of course have had theirs. And this is phenomenal, ecstasy has its place in Eros.
Conversely, when the initial passion and euphoria fade away, that is when (in my opinion) love answers the question of its own longevity. Is what you have eternal? Will you continue to run from all corners of existence and nooks of the world to say "I am yours", one thousand times over? And over again? And if the answer is yes, what is the "formula" for that? Obviously, there is no one right response, but Rilke offered a good one.
“Love consists of this: two solitudes that meet, greet, and protect each other. The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.”
I hope I always see the one I love as a shooting star against the universe.
A Thousand Years (2011), Christina Perri
This is so cool. Your intertext, the wild poem of hafiz. Thank you (:
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