Of Soulful sighs and poetic words...

[Jannah]

k i'm just going to put some random stuff in here.....

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Sonnet XLIII
Elizabeth Browning

How do I love thee ? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life !--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

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Sonnets from the Portuguese, XIII

And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,
Between our faces, to cast light upon each?

I drop it at thy feet. I cannot teach
My hand to hold my spirit so far off
From myself.. me.. that I should bring thee proof,
In words of love hid in me... out of reach.

Nay, let the silence of my womanhood
Commend my woman-love to thy belief,
Seeing that I stand unwon (however wooed)
And rend the garment of my life in brief
By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude,
Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief.

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

[Jannah]

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The True Beauty
T. Carew

He that loves a rosy cheek
Or coral lip admires,
Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires ;
As old Time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and steadfast mind,
Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined,
Kindle never-dying fires :-
Where these are not, I despise
Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.


[Jannah]

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From the Doorstep to Heaven

Now,
With the sad rain
Drenching my sad face,
I dream of a ladder of dust,
Collected from hunched backs
And hands clinging onto knees,
To mount to highest heaven
And discover
What becomes of our prayers and sighs.
O my beloved,
All the prayers and sighs,
All the laments and cries for help,
Springing from
Millions of lips and hearts,
Through thousands of years and centuries,
Must be gathered somewhere in heaven,
Like clouds.
And maybe
These words of mine
Are now close to those of Isa.
So let us await the tears of heaven,
O beloved.

-- Muhammad al-Maghut

[Jannah]

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Farewell

Leave me, my love, it's time to part
this paradise is not my portion.
I had to cross a bridge of flame whenever
I visited this land of bliss.
Yet I've been your life-long companion
since earliest youth and your tender years.
But now I come like a transient guest,
and go away like a bird of passage.

Has anyone drunken with love like us,
seen love like we have seen it ?
We built a thousand castles on our way,
Walked together on a moon-drenched road,
Where joy danced and leapt before us,
we gazed at the stars that fell, and we possessed them.
And we laughed like two children together,
ran and raced with our own shadows.
After this nectar's sweetness we awoke -
how I wished it had never been so !
Night's dreams had vanished, the night was ended
the night that used to be our friend.
The light of morning was an ominous herald ;
dawn loomed up like a wall of fire.


--Ibrahim Naji

[Jannah]

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She Walks In Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night
Or cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes,
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face,
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
Hoe pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow
But tell of days in goodness spent-
A mind of peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.

--Byron

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When We Two Parted


When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever the years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder, thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning
Sunk, chill on my brow,
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me...
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee too well..
Long, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.

[Jannah]

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Sonnet XVIII

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day ?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate :
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date :

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest :

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

--Shakespeare

[Jannah]

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Love is The Fire
by Thomas Bateson

Love is the fire that burns me,
The smokes are thoughts confused,
Which dim my soul, my soul,
And hath my sense abused.
Though fire to ashes turn me,
Yet doth the smoke more grieve me,
That dims my mind,
Whose light should still relieve me.


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What Is Love?
by Ernest Dowson

What is Love?
Is it a folly,
Is it mirth, or melancholy?
Joys above,
Are there many, or not any?
What is Love?

If you please,
A most sweet folly!
Full of mirth and melancholy:
Both of these!
In its sadness worth all gladness,
If you please!

Prithee where,
Goes Love a-hiding?
Is he long in his abiding
Anywhere?
Can you bind him when you find him;
Prithee, where?

With spring days
Love comes and dallies:
Upon the mountains, through the valleys
Lie Love's ways.
Then he leaves you and deceives you
In spring days.

[JustOne]

 

My soul is sighing.

It's very difficult to be poetic in English, so those of us who had such a restrictive language to work with, and still ended up expressing ourselves well .... really deserve credit.

(Shakespeare being an example)

...Keep them coming.  I'm really enjoying this.

Wasalaam

[Jannah]

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Monsoon Moments
by
Nasir Kazmi (1925-72)
Translated from Urdu by Debjani Chatterjee

Once more the monsoon winds blow and I remember you,
once more the leafy anklets chime and I remember you.

All day I was lost in the maze of worldly affairs.
Now when the sun climbs down the walls, I remember you.

Once more the crow calls in the empty courtyard at home,
once more the drops of nectar fall - and I remember you.

Once more the herons cry in an ocean of green grass,
the season of yellow blooms has come - and I remember you.

At first I wept aloud, and then began to laugh.
Thunder rolls and lightning flashes - and I remember you.




[Jannah]

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Views of Life
by Anne Brontë

When sinks my heart in hopeless gloom,
And life can shew no joy for me;
And I behold a yawning tomb,
Where bowers and palaces should be;
In vain you talk of morbid dreams;
In vain you gaily smiling say,
That what to me so dreary seems,
The healthy mind deems bright and gay.

I too have smiled, and thought like you,
But madly smiled, and falsely deemed:
Truth led me to the present view,
I'm waking now -- 'twas then I dreamed.

I lately saw a sunset sky,
And stood enraptured to behold
Its varied hues of glorious dye:
First, fleecy clouds of shining gold;

These blushing took a rosy hue;
Beneath them shone a flood of green;
Nor less divine, the glorious blue
That smiled above them and between.

I cannot name each lovely shade;
I cannot say how bright they shone;
But one by one, I saw them fade;
And what remained whey they were gone?

Dull clouds remained, of sombre hue,
And when their borrowed charm was o'er,
The azure sky had faded too,
That smiled so softly bright before.

So, gilded by the glow of youth,
Our varied life looks fair and gay;
And so remains the naked truth,
When that false light is past away.

Why blame ye, then, my keener sight,
That clearly sees a world of woes,
Through all the haze of golden light,
That flattering Falsehood round it throws?


[Halima]

 

Touching!

I particularly enjoyed the Monsoon Moments!  Beautiful!  Is he talking of love or Allah?



Halima

[Jannah]

wsalam,

good question, i guess we'd have to see the original language to analyze it better. it could be either, i also thought he was talking about 'monsoon season' itself. it's a huge thing there, life, ritual, memories revolve around it. so i thought he might be talking about remembering that.

[Jannah]

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Alone
by Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.


[Jannah]

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Oblivion

At last the cure, I bid farewell to pain,
and welcome with a smile the days to come.
Oblivion comes to me a kingly guest,
with hands compassionate and blessed steps.
My guest comes strongly on,
folding the distances, the dark unknown.
Proffering a cup that takes away
old pain, and banishes all regrets.
So drain it to the dregs and have no fear-
For long you have suffered, your thirst your only drink.
Oblivion now envelops me, and I
thank God for its overwhelming flood,
Surrendering to the waves which engulf me,
happy to embrace a void without memories.

--Ibrahim Najji



[jaded]

 

wow! how did u find such a beautiful selection of poetry? Are there any poetry books or collections that u can recomend to read?

[Jannah]

wsalaam,

they're random finds that call to me at that moment.... try wandering around the internet and look for poetry sites and blogs, never know what treasures u can uncover, don't forget to post em here too

[Jannah]

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My solitude and I often speak to each other of this
How it would have been if you had been here
You would have said this, you would have commented on that
This would have surprised you, that would have made you laugh
It would have been this way, it would have been that way
If you had been here

My solitude and I often speak to each other of this

Where have we come
Just walking hand in hand so
In your arms, my love
My life and soul melt so

Is it night, or is it your dark hair
Is it moonlight, or are my nights awash with your gaze
Is this the moon or your shining bracelet
Are these the stars or your veil on the sky
A breeze or the fragrance of your body
The rustling of leaves or did you whisper something softly

For some time, I have been pondering this perplexed
Even though this I too know
That it is not you, it is not you anywhere
But this heart, it insists
That it is you, it is you here somewhere

O, you are the body, I am the shadow
If you are not, neither am I
My love
Wherever you are, I am there
We had to meet, beloved
On this very path

Where have we come
Just walking hand in hand so

My every breath smells so sweet
Like the aroma of softly moonlit earth
Your love is like moonlight
And my heart is like a lap
Someone soft comes to me too
As my night falls gently

Where have we come
Just walking hand in hand so


Forlorn is the state, on this side and on your side
A night of loneliness, on this side and on your side
There is much to say, but who to tell
Till when can we remain silent
The heart wants to breach the customs of this world
And break the wall that separates us
Why should our hearts smoulder, let us declare
Yes, we are in love, in love, love
Now this is both in my heart, and in your heart


Where have we come
Just walking hand in hand so



Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum
Translated by Ayesha Kaljuvee
From the movie 'Silsila'



[Jannah]

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Bahar Aayee
By Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Translated by Ayesha Kaljuvee

Bahar aayee
Spring has come
to jaisey yak baar laut aaye hain phir adum se
So have returned suddenly from the past
woh khaab sarey, shabaab sarey
All those dreams, all that beauty
jo terey honton pe mar mittey they
That on your lips had died
jo mit ke har baar phir jiye they
That had died and lived again each time

nikher gaye hain gulaaab sarey
All the roses are blooming
jo teri yadon se mushkboo hain
That still smell of your memories
jo terey ushaak ka lahoo hain
That are the blood of my love for you
bahaar aayee
Spring has come

ubal parey hain azaab sarey
All the torments are raging again
malaal-e-ihbay-e-doastaan bhi
That unheeded advice of friends
tumharey aaghosh-e-mehvashaan bhi
That intoxication of your embrace

ghubar-e-khatir ke baab sarey
The dust of old chapters have opened
tirey humarey sawaal sarey, jawaab sarey
With all our questions, all our answers

bahaar aayee
Spring has come
to khul gaye hain
So have opened
neye sirrey se hisaab sarey
all the journals of my love anew
neye sirrey se hisaab sarey
all the journals of my love anew

bahaar aayee
Spring has come
bahaar aayee
Spring has come




[Jannah]

The next few are mine. I'm not a poet, so it's just stuff I wrote down that I plan to intertwine with all the photos and memories I have of the middle east to be written or blogged one day. Sharing it here just cuz...

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Lattakia

At waters edge I stood laughing
My hands gripping the black lava cliffs
The rocks beneath my feet smooth and sharp

Blue of every hue stretching into the distance
Water lapping against me, pure and clear

So much beauty blinded my heart like
the sun my eyes that day
Surely Someone loves me? I thought

The waves came and went back
pulling me towards the distance
pulling me, pulling me

Sunshine sparkling off the drops
I smiled,
and wanted to let go.






[Jannah]

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September

I dreamt last night
Of autumn leaves
that passed me by
like dreams of my youth
floating
on a stream near my woods
There were reds, greens, oranges,
glorious creations
distracting me from my dhikr
of Ramadan.

Cold november rain
falls on my face
as I hurry to the Eid prayer
How much time has passed,
I can't remember
since Eid was once in summer.

Icicles cover every bare tree in
shattering beauty
January winds make them tinkle
As I walk to class,
I think of Hajjis.

March, another birthday
can I ask time to stop?
Even from me it turns
a cold shoulder.

The world turns verdant and
one small violet flower in my yard
struggles upward
doesn't she know it's only May?

Wild strawberries and
endless sun
weddings every weekend
Are these tears of happiness, sadness
or summer rain?

It does not matter
for
it is September again.




[Jannah]

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Palmyra

Breathless beauties of pink
wind themselves around
the stems of ancient ruins.

Desert camels start the
short journeys, disgusted
by the bright tourists
on their back.

Woven textiles,
precious stones,
plastic baubles,
coke for 5 liras.

In one spellbinding moment
history becomes as alluring
as the sand and wind,
that surround us.



[Jannah]

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Anger devastation
shards of glass
pain
and loneliness.

Companions
mine
on dark
fathomless
nights.

Veils of darkness
surround
like
evil
spirits.

Can't
Can't even see
the
glimmers on the
horizon
of dawn.





[lala marcy]

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Reluctance

by Robert Frost

Out through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch-hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question 'Whither?'

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?




[Jannah]

frost man.. .kills me every time... thanx marcy


this one i really wanted to add the picture with it, but it and the video just don't do justice to it.  this place seriously is the most beautiful i've ever gazed upon. i wish i could be buried there.

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Contemplating the Sunset Across the Road
from Maqaam Ayyub, Southern Syria


A Dream within a Dream

The sky is robin egg blue
Undulating verdant hills fold out into the distance
Vineyards brilliant green against the gentle hills
And I am standing on a yellow dusty road
Watching pink gold light the sky

I have been here before
A dream within a dream
I walk and see the bottle
It is empty but labeled
'Broken Dreams'
Shards of glass within the glass

How can this place exist in a barren land?
How can summer rain gently fall on my face,
warm from the sun?
How can Allah's mercy exist through all my sins?

The cool grey rocks beckon, 
I sit holding my jar close to me
Sorrow, Grief and Shukr now fill it
I remind myself that this too
was Ayyub's paradise.




[lala marcy]

salaam, what a lovely picture that is Jannah!

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somewhere i have never travelled,
gladly beyond any experience,
your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me,
i and my life will shut very beautifully,
suddenly,as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:
whose texture compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens;
only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands

e.e. cummings



[Jannah]

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SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


PARAPHRASE

Let me not declare any reasons [impediments] why two
True-minded people should be married. Love is not love
Which alters when it finds an alteration in circumstances,
Or bends from its firm stand even when the lovers are unfaithful:
Oh no! it is a fixed mark
That sees storms but it never shaken;
It is the guiding star to every lost ship,
Whose value cannot be calculated, although its height can be measured.
Love is not at the mercy of Time, though its rosy lips and cheeks
Come within the compass of his [Time's] sickle.
Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [really] loved.




ANALYSIS

[Lines 1-2]* T.G. Tucker explains that the first two lines are "[a] manifest allusion to the words of the Marriage Service: 'If any of you know cause or just impediment why these two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony'; cf. Much Ado 4.1.12. 'If either of you know any inward impediment why you should not be conjoined.' Where minds are true - in possessing love in the real sense dwelt upon in the following lines - there can be no 'impediments' through change of circumstances, outward appearance, or temporary lapses in conduct". (T.G. Tucker, ed. Sonnets of Shakespeare. Cambridge: University Press, 1924, [192])

[Line 5]* 'mark' = a beacon to warn mariners of dangerous rocks.

Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form. It is praising the glories of lovers who have come to each other freely, and enter into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure in love that is constant and strong, and will not "alter when it alteration finds". The following lines proclaim that true love is indeed an "ever-fix'd mark" which will survive any crisis. In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we fully understand it. Love's actual worth cannot be known -- it remains a mystery. The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is unshakeable throughout time and remains so "ev'n to the edge of doom", or death. In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on love, truth, and faith. Moreover, he adds that, if he has in fact judged love inappropriately, no man has ever really loved, in the ideal sense that the poet professes. The details of Sonnet 116 are best described by Tucker Brooke in his acclaimed edition of Shakespeare's poems:

    [In Sonnet 116] the chief pause in sense is after the twelfth line. Seventy-five per cent of the words are monosyllables; only three contain more syllables than two; none belong in any degree to the vocabulary of 'poetic' diction. There is nothing recondite, exotic, or metaphysical in the thought. There are three run-on lines, one pair of double-endings. There is nothing to remark about the rhyming except the happy blending of open and closed vowels, and of liquids, nasals, and stops; nothing to say about the harmony except to point out how the fluttering accents in the quatrains give place in the couplet to the emphatic march of the almost unrelieved iambic feet. In short, the poet has employed one hundred and ten of the simplest words in the language and the two simplest rhyme-schemes to produce a poem which has about it no strangeness whatever except the strangeness of perfection. (Brooke, ed. The Sonnets. London: Oxford UP: 1936, 234)

[Jannah]

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How often have I stood here,
dreaming that you were with me.
Your hands were the wind caressing my hair.
Your eyes were the stars in the sky
looking down on me.
And I kept asking the river...
...where you were.

What did it answer?

Nothing.
It just flowed on by,
silently,
like my life.
It passes
and you hardly notice.


--scene from Shadows of Time

[Jannah]

another different perspective:

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On Marriage
Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.


Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.


Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

[Attia]

Sorry to intrude...I'm enjoying this thread so much


A Friend Sends Her Perfumed Carriage
   

  A friend sends her perfumed carriage
And high-bred horses to fetch me.
I decline the invitation of
My old poetry and wine companion.

I remember the happy days in the lost capital.
We took our ease in the woman's quarters.
The Feast of Lanterns was elaborately celebrated -
Folded pendants, emerald hairpins, brocaded girdles,
New sashes - we competed
To see who was most smartly dressed.
Now I am withering away,
Wind-blown hair, frost temples.
I prefer to stay beyond the curtains,
And listen to talk and laughter
I can no longer share.

Li Ching Chao  (1084-1151)

[Jannah]

I Held a Jewel
by Emily  Dickinson

I held a jewel in my fingers
And went to sleep
The day was warm, and winds were prosy
I said, "Twill keep"

I woke - and chide my honest fingers,
The Gem was gone
And now, an Amethyst remembrance
Is all I own




I Many Times Thought


I many times thought peace had come
When peace was far away,
As wrecked men deem they sight the land
When far at sea they stay.

And struggle slacker, but to prove,
As hopelessly as I,
That many the fictitious shores
Before the harbor lie.



You Left Me
by Emily Dickinson

You left me, sweet, two legacies, -
A legacy of love
A Heavenly Father would content,
Had He the offer of;

You left me boundaries of pain
Capacious as the sea,
Between eternity and time,
Your consciousness and me.

[Jannah]

The Indian Serenade
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep or night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright:
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me- who knows how?
To thy chamber-window, sweet!

The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream-
The champak odors fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart-
As I must die on thine,
Oh, beloved as thou art!

Oh, lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast-
Oh! press it close to thine own again,
Where it will break at last!

[Jannah]

Ah, My Beloved
by Omar Khayyam

Ah, my beloved, fill the cup that clears
Today of past regrets and future fears;
Tomorrow? Why, tomorrow I may be,
Myself, with yesterday's sev'n thousand years.


A Book of Verse
by Omar Khayyam

A book of verse, underneath the bough,
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread - and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness -
Ah, wilderness were paradise enow!

[Jannah]

The Garden of Love
by William Blake

I went to the Garden of Love.
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And "Thou Shalt Not", writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore,

And I saw it filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

[Jannah]

        Bereft
by Robert Frost

        Where had I heard this wind before
        Change like this to a deeper roar?
        What would it take my standing there for,
        Holding open a restive door,
        Looking downhill to a frothy shore?
        Summer was past and day was past.
        Somber clouds in the west were massed.
        Out in the porch's sagging floor
        Leaves got up in a coil and hissed,
        Blindly struck at my knee and missed.
        Something sinister in the tone
        Told me my secret must be known:
        Word I was in the house alone
        Somehow must have gotten abroad,
        Word I was in my life alone,
        Word I had no one left but God.

[Jannah]

To a Stranger
by Walt Whitman

Passing stranger! you do not know
How longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking,
Or she I was seeking
(It comes to me as a dream)

I have somewhere surely
Lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall'd as we flit by each other,
Fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,

You grew up with me,
Were a boy with me or a girl with me,
I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become
not yours only nor left my body mine only,

You give me the pleasure of your eyes,
face, flesh as we pass,
You take of my beard, breast, hands,
in return,

I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you
when I sit alone or wake at night, alone
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

[JustOne]

85
by: Catullus

Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?
Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.



I hate and I love. Perhaps you ask, "why do I do this?"
I don't know. But I feel that it happens, and I am tortured.

[Jannah]

Longing
by Matthew Arnold (1822 1888)

Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again.
For then the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.

Come, as thou cam'st a thousand times,
A messenger from radiant climes,
And smile on thy new world, and be
As kind to others as to me.

Or, as thou never cam'st in sooth,
Come now, and let me dream it truth.
And part my hair, and kiss my brow,
And say My love! why sufferest thou?

Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again.
For then the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.

[Attia]

Seasons In The Sun
( Terry Jacks )

Goodbye to you my trusted friend
We've known each other since we were nine or ten
Together we climbed hills and trees
Learned of love and A B C's
Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees.

Goodbye my friend it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
Pretty girls are everywhere
Think of me and I'll be there

We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were just seasons
Out of time......

Goodbye Papa please pray for me
I was the black sheep of the family
You tried to teach me right from wrong
Too much wine and too much song
Wonder how I got along.

Goodbye Papa its hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
Little children everywhere
When you see them I'll be there.

We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like the seasons
Have all gone.

We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like the seasons
Have all gone.

Goodbye Michelle my little one
You gave me love and helped me find the sun
And every time that I was down
You would always come around
And get my feet back on the ground.

Goodbye Michelle it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
With the flowers everywhere
I wish that we could both be there

We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the stars we could reach
Were just starfish on the beach

We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the stars we could reach
Were just starfish on the beach

We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song like the seasons
Have all gone

All our lives we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were just seasons
Out of time......

We had joy we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
-----------------

N.B: this is actually a song from 1974, a very haunting melody

[JustOne]

This is French Opera for you...Carmen sings it from Habanerra.  The trance version by Carmenita Lounging, however, is significantly better.  Translation below:


L'amour est un oiseau rebelle
que nul ne peut apprivoiser,
et c'est bien en vain qu'on l'appelle,
s'il lui convient de refuser.
Rien n'y fait, menace ou prière,
l'un parle bien, l'autre se tait:
Et c'est l'autre que je préfère,
Il n'a rien dit mais il me plaît.
L'amour! l'amour! l'amour! l'amour!

L'amour est enfant de Bohême,
il n'a jamais, jamais connu de loi;
si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime:
si je t'aime, prends garde à toi! etc.

L'oiseau que tu croyais surprendre
battit de l'aile et s'envola ...
l'amour est loin, tu peux l'attendre;
tu ne l'attends plus, il est là!
Tout autour de toi, vite, vite,
il vient, s'en va, puis il revient ...
tu crois le tenir, il t'évite,
tu crois l'éviter, il te tient.
L'amour! l'amour!, lamour, l'amour!

Anglais:

Love is a rebellious bird
Which noone (and nothing) can tame
And it's much in vain that we call out to it
Because it makes it easier for him to refuse
Nothing does it (as in nothing does the trick), anger or pleading
One speaks nicely, the other one is always silent
And it's the other one that I prefer
He has not said anything, but I like him
Love love love love

Love is the child of Bohemia (reference to being carefree, nomadic, not tied to anything)
It has never, never known of law
If you don't like me, I like you
And if I like you, then look out for yourself

The bird you thought you had caught
spreads its wings and flies away ...
love stays away, you wait and wait;
and when you turn away from it, it appears right there
It's all around you, quick, so quick,
it comes, it goes, and then returns ...
When you think you hold it, it escapes you
When you think you've escaped it, it holds on to you.
Love! Love! Love! Love!

[Jannah]

To a Distant Friend

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)


WHY art thou silent? Is thy love a plant   
Of such weak fibre that the treacherous air   
Of absence withers what was once so fair?   
Is there no debt to pay, no boon to grant?   

Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant,          
Bound to thy service with unceasing care—   
The mind's least generous wish a mendicant   
For nought but what thy happiness could spare.   

Speak!—though this soft warm heart, once free to hold   
A thousand tender pleasures, thine and mine,          
Be left more desolate, more dreary cold   

Than a forsaken bird's-nest fill'd with snow   
'Mid its own bush of leafless eglantine—   
Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know!

[Jannah]

Longing For Love 
by Kelsey Murphy

There is a longing deep inside me.
Pulling my heart apart.
No one to hug.
No one to Love.
No one to share my pain with.
I want to prove it wrong.
One day I shall find my soul mate.
Then I'll prove my heart wrong!

------------------------


Time Is Too Slow 
by Henry Van Dyke

Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love, time is eternity.


------------------------



The Passionate Shepard to His Love 
by Christopher Marlowe

Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed
their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs-
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and by my Love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning-
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

[Siham]

LOVE

Your love caused me to be imprisoned again
I am caught in Love's web so deceitful
None of my endeavors turn fruitful
I knew not when I rode the high-blooded stead
The harder I pulled its reins the less it would heed

Love is as a sea with the shores you cannot see
And a wise can never swim in such a sea
A true lover should be faithful till the end
And face life's reprobated trend
When you see things hideous, fancy them neat,
Eat poison, but taste sugar sweet

(Rabi'a Balkhi)

[Jannah]

Indian Love-Song

SHE

Like a serpent to the calling voice of flutes,
Glides my heart into thy fingers, O my Love!
Where the night-wind, like a lover, leans above
His jasmine-gardens and sirisha-bowers;
And on ripe boughs of many-coloured fruits
Bright parrots cluster like vermilion flowers.


HE

Like the perfume in the petals of a rose,
Hides thy heart within my bosom, O my love!
Like a garland, like a jewel, like a dove
That hangs its nest in the asoka-tree.
Lie still, O love, until the morning sows
Her tents of gold on fields of ivory.

-- Sarojini Naidu [from The Golden Threshold]

[Jannah]

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
Let my love, like sunlight, surround you and yet give you illumined freedom.
Love remains a secret even when spoken, for only a lover truly knows that he is loved.
Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.
In love I pay my endless debt to thee for what thou art.

Fireflies - Tagore