A Love Poem and a Couplet

Aaaah! It has been several months since I last posted and today I feel like sharing one of my favorite love poems and a couplet. No reason. Enjoy!

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

- Pablo Neruda


Zabaan-e yaar-e mun Turkie, wa mun Turkie nami daanum,
Che khush boodi agar boodi zabaanash dar dahanay mun.

translation
My beloved speaks Turkish, and Turkish I do not know;
How I wish if her tongue would have been in my mouth.

- Amir Khusrau
(via Yousuf Saeed's EXCELLENT site on Khusrau) posted by ubaid - Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 12:24 AM - 1 comments - post anonymously