You Don't Have To Love Me

I prayed for you
I prayed that you would love me
and that you would not love me

- Leonerd Cohen

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Amir Khusrau

Khusrau asked him,

~‘Who are you? What are you making?’
-Farhād replied,
        ‘I am a lover. I am smelting my soul.’
~‘What is the mark of a lover?’
       - ‘He knows to live and suffer.’
~‘What do such lovers really want?’
        -‘To give their hearts and seek out pain.’
~‘Why are their hearts not with them?’
        -‘Do the beautiful beloveds allow this?’
~‘What is the beloved’s creed?’
       - ‘They call it coquetry and deceit.’
~‘What is her other occupation?’
       - ‘To take life and give sorrow.’
~‘Does sorrow’s bitterness ever decrease?’
        -‘It is sweeter than sorrow, so it’s fine.’
~‘How do you fare with this distance from her?’
        -‘I am dying away so far from her face.’
~‘Does her radiance sometimes fall on you?’
        -‘Yes, but from afar, like the moon.’
~‘Don’t look at her as long as you live.’
       - ‘Death would be better than that life.’
~‘She will put your life in danger.’
       - ‘My life is cheap, I have no fear.’
~‘Keep your distance from that friend.’
       - ‘That is not friendship’s way.’
‘She is untried and nothing but trouble.’
       ~ ‘How does that pertain to love?’
‘How long will you suffer for her?’
       - ‘All my life and in death as well too.’
~‘And if you die from this passion?’
       - ‘I will pray for her in annihilation.’
~‘And if she should chop off your head?’
       - ‘It will look towards her from beneath the earth.’
~‘And if she were to spill your blood?’
        -‘I will die longing for her.’
~‘Isn’t bloodshed a heinous crime?’
       - ‘It is lawful when shed by the friend.’
~‘If she were to suddenly pass before you?’
       - ‘My eyes would sweep the way before her.’
~‘If she lays her foot on your eyes?’
        -‘There’s room in my eyes and heart.’
~‘If you see her form in a dream?’
        -‘I will not wake up until Judgement Day.’
~‘Do you ever dream of this?’
        -‘Indeed, if ever I manage to sleep.’
~‘If she asks you to dig through stone with your nails?’
       - ‘I would even use my eyelashes for miles.’
~‘Live long in your sorrow for your friend.’
       - ‘How can I live when she is my life?’
~‘Love has put your life in danger.’
        -‘What have lovers to fear from this?’

Whatever the great monarch said to him,
Farhād answered him back as a lover should.
The king was impressed by the passion
and perseverance in such a true and tried lover.

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You smiled, you spoke, and I believed,
By every word and smile deceived.
Another man would hope no more;
Nor hope I what I hoped before:
But let not this last wish be vain;
Deceive, deceive me once again!

-Walter Savage Landor

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I have been one acquainted with
the night.
I have walked out in rain—and
back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city
light.
.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another
street.
.
But not to call me back or say good- bye;
And further still at an unearthly
height,
One luminary clock against the sky
.
Proclaimed the time was neither
wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with
the night.

-Robert Frost

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"And of course there must be something rong. . 

In wanting silence to any song. . "

-Robert Frost

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God once spoke to people by name

The sun once imparted its flame

One impulse persists as our breath

The other persists as our faith

-Robert Frost

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