In A Manner I Won't Forget
Tell me, Love, what I need right now so that
I might sing, and be alive,
as my every cell craves.
Tell me, dear, what I need right now,
but in a manner I won't soon forget.
Then the world began to sway,
its hips invited my arms,
its feet placed mine upon them,
that made all my effort easy.
I came across this beautiful decsription of what makes love lasting by Thích Nhất Hạnh: "There are two Vietnamese words, tinh and nghia, that are difficult to translate into English. They both mean something like love. In tinh, you find elements of passion. It can be very deep, absorbing the whole of your being. Nghia is a kind of continuation of tinh. With Nghia you feel calmer, more understanding, more willing to sacrifice to make the other person happy, and more faithful. You are not as passionate as in tinh, but your love is deeper and more solid. Nghia will keep you and the other person together for a long time. It is the result of living together and sharing difficulties and joy over time. In nghia, you feel gratitude for the other person. “Thank you for having chosen me. Thank you for being my husband or my wife. There are so many people in society, why have you chosen me? I am very thankful.” That is the beginning of nghia, the sense of thankfulness for your having chosen me as your companion to share the best things in yourself, as well as your suffering and your happiness."
I think that is what makes love lasting, when you can find someone who puts your "feet upon them" and "makes all your effort easy". Lasting love is about loving the person as they are now and loving the person they desire to become. It happens because you have known sorrow and joy, because you have experienced ectasy and boredom, because you there is no one you'd rather just do nothing with and no one else you'd rather experience everything with. If two people stay together, as Hafiz would say, "until the fields of thier bodies turn gray", it is because of nghia.
Tell me, Love, what I need right now so that
I might sing, and be alive,
as my every cell craves.
Tell me, dear, what I need right now,
but in a manner I won't soon forget.
Then the world began to sway,
its hips invited my arms,
its feet placed mine upon them,
that made all my effort easy.
I came across this beautiful decsription of what makes love lasting by Thích Nhất Hạnh: "There are two Vietnamese words, tinh and nghia, that are difficult to translate into English. They both mean something like love. In tinh, you find elements of passion. It can be very deep, absorbing the whole of your being. Nghia is a kind of continuation of tinh. With Nghia you feel calmer, more understanding, more willing to sacrifice to make the other person happy, and more faithful. You are not as passionate as in tinh, but your love is deeper and more solid. Nghia will keep you and the other person together for a long time. It is the result of living together and sharing difficulties and joy over time. In nghia, you feel gratitude for the other person. “Thank you for having chosen me. Thank you for being my husband or my wife. There are so many people in society, why have you chosen me? I am very thankful.” That is the beginning of nghia, the sense of thankfulness for your having chosen me as your companion to share the best things in yourself, as well as your suffering and your happiness."
I think that is what makes love lasting, when you can find someone who puts your "feet upon them" and "makes all your effort easy". Lasting love is about loving the person as they are now and loving the person they desire to become. It happens because you have known sorrow and joy, because you have experienced ectasy and boredom, because you there is no one you'd rather just do nothing with and no one else you'd rather experience everything with. If two people stay together, as Hafiz would say, "until the fields of thier bodies turn gray", it is because of nghia.
Thích Nhất Hạnh and Martin Luther King Jr.
Here is a link to the letter King wrote nominating Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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