u/Ok-Draw-7427

To a Man

When will you know how I adore you—you, the hope

for whom I would trade the world and all it holds?

For love of you, I have defied entire cities,

and I shall continue to defy them.

If you asked for the sea, I would pour it into your eyelids;

if you asked for the sun, I would throw it upon your palms.

I love you—I write it beyond the clouds,

and I sing it to the birds and the trees.

I love you—I carve it upon the mirror of the water,

and I steep it into the grapes and the cups.

I love you—you, the sword that drew my blood,

you, the story whose title I do not know.

Do you not see me struggling in your cyclone,

while the swell gnaws at my hopes and casts them back aboard?

Step down a moment from my eyelashes—your buoy-nest

—you who still kill my dreams and bring them back to life.

I love you, please help me.

For he who begins tragedy must end it.

He who opens doors must close them.

He who lights fires must extinguish them.

Oh, you who think in silence and leave me,

I raise my anchor and cast it into the sea.

Enough of playing the lover with me,

and selecting words you don't mean.

How many poems I invented that you had sent me,

and enjoyed roses you would offer to me.

How many times I turned toward a promise that never came,

how I wished you would ask me to dance,

and my perplexed arms left me without knowing where to rest them.

Come back to me, for the earth has stopped,

as if the earth had fled its seconds.

Come back to me, for after you, I have no lipstick to put on,

nor even to touch my perfumes in their bottles.

To whom does my youth belong? To whom does this flying hair belong?

Doomed forever to bind austere tresses.

Come back just as you are, whether it's sunny or rainy,

for what is my life worth if you are not part of it?

What secret dwells within you? I cannot tell.

Every mystery you keep draws me deeper still.

A spell rests upon my smiling lips,

A quiet enchantment runs through my neck;

My fate hangs by a single lock of hair,

Like a little skiff upon a wave of fragrance,

Drifting through unfathomable depths,

Your eyes bound to the years of my life.

xxxxx

Silence beats its wings,

Yet every curve of your beauty is filled with song.

How many strings have slept

Upon your breathing wood,

Cradling melodies of sorrow,

Of longing, of sighs, of yearning.

The storm has laid itself to rest,

And your heart has yielded to a tender silence.

xxxxx

This world is nothing but abandonment.

Where, in this Sahara,

May I find but one shade from all your shades?

Beauty may still bloom,

Yet no treasured idol,

However precious,

Can equal your grace.

The world may overflow with light,

Yet so much radiance is darkness beside you.

And if my heart were granted its deepest wish,

It would ask for nothing more

Than one fleeting glimpse of you.

He said: "You have rimmed your eyes with leaden sleep." I said: "Preparing for the return of your beloved specter."

He said: "You amused yourself after our final farewells." I said: "In my nest and my den."

He said: "You are withdrawing from our love." I said: "From an excess of tears and grief."

He said: "You are yielding to oblivion." I said: "My healing."

He said: "You are drifting away." I said: "From my homeland."

He said: "You are renouncing." I said: "My very skin."

He said: "You have changed." I said: "In my very flesh."

He said: "You are straying far from our company." I said: "Does the Earth leave its orbit?"

He said: "You are scattering the secrets." I said: "Against my will, your love is forsaking its chrysalises."

He said: "You are delighting our rivals." I said: "If that is what you fear, it will never happen."

He said: "What do you intend to do?" I said: "Survive your next resurgence."

The moonlit nights are drawing near— come, let us keep our vigil here, beneath your glow, where we belong, with whispered love and secrets dear.

How it pains me to miss these nights when you are not here by my side— I watch your distant, astral gleam, my fixed celestial companion, pure and supreme, seeing you grow with the love I dream.

I count each passing night and say— "The hour of our meeting nears." I cling to that envisioned day when I shall hold you through the years.

I wonder where we two shall meet, and how my tongue should find its words; but when you come, my speech takes flight— I lose all thought, all breath, all might, drowned in the joy of you so near.

The moonlit nights are drawing near— come, let us wake the old vigils here.

How fair the moon hangs o'er the shore, the air so sweet, the night so still. Come, keep the watch with me once more, soothe this heart, let joy instil. Bask in your nearness, soft and bright, beneath this full and silver sphere, and sing your love to the waves' delight that lap and whisper, drawing near.

The waves fall for the wandering breeze, Echo replies to every sigh; here, in paradise's shadowed lease, she spins our tale to Eros nigh.

You, from whom the moon steals all its grace— flood my heart with that mirrored face; come, renew its lucent fire.

Life turns beautiful and streams between your beauty and the moon's beams, between your perfect charm and grace, and the soft aura of that luminous place.

I drift in this enchanted state, blessing my heart, my eager eyes, beholding all my dream's design— with the full moon as witness benign.