I. Thou and I
Our chang'd and mingled souls are grown
To such acquaintance now,
That if each would resume their own,
Alas! we know not how.
We have each other so engrost,
That each is in the union lost.
Inspired with a flame divine,
I scorn to court a stay;
For from that noble soul of thine
I ne'er can be away.
But I shall weep when thou dost grieve
Nor can I die whilst thou dost live.
Katherine Philips (1631-64): To Mrs. M. A. at Parting
Happy the moment when we are seated in the Palace, thou and I,With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I.
The colours of the grove and the voice of the birds will bestow immortality
At the time when we come into the garden, thou and I
The stars of heaven will come to gaze upon us;
We shall show them the Moon itself, shall be mingled in ecstasy,
Joyful and secure from foolish babble, thou and I.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: The Divan of Shams I Tabriz(trans. by R. A. Nicholson)
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Requiem in aeternam dona eis
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Voices, voices. Hear them, my heart, as before
only saints heard; so that the gigantic cry
lifted them from the ground; but they kept kneeling,
those impossible ones, and paid it no heed.
That's when they heard. Not that you'd endure the voice,
God's, not by far. But hear the wind's lament,
the unbroken tidings that form from the silence.
They rush towards you now from those youthful dead.
What is their desire? Quietly shall I rid myself
of evil's apparitions, which might interfere
with their spirits' pure movement.
The fact is they no longer need us, these too-young-departed;
one gently slips away from the earth as one gradually outgrows
a mother's breast.
Yet we, who need such gigantic
secrets, for whom sorrow is so often
our source of progress in grace - can we exist without them?
R. M. Rilke, Duino Elegy I(trans. by Norbert Ruebsaat)
And the ghosts of generations pastwept to be remembered.
Erna Paris: The End of Days
Requiem in aeternam dona eisEt lux perpetua luceat eis.
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Thus our twin-souls in one shall grow,And teach the World new love,
Redeem the age and sex, and show
A flame Fate dares not move:
And courting Death to be our friend,
Our lives together too shall end.
Katherine Philips: To Mrs. M. A. at Parting
Happy the moment when we are seated in the Palace, thou and I,With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I.
Jalal al-Din Rumi: The Divan of Shams I Tabriz
II. We Are The Stars Which Sing
I did not live until this timeCrowned my felicity,
When I could say without a crime,
'I am not thine, but thee.'
This carcase breathed, and walked, and slept,
So that the world believed
There was a soul the motions kept;
But they were all deceived.
For as a watch by art is wound
To motion, such was mine;
But never had Orinda found
A soul till she found thine;
Which now inspires, cures, and supplies,
And guides my darkened breast:
For thou art all that I can prize,
My joy, my life, my rest.
No bridegroom's nor crown-conqueror's mirth
To mine compared can be:
They have but pieces of this Earth,
I've all the world in thee.
Then let our flames still light and shine,
And no false fear control,
As innocent as our design,
Immortal as our soul.
Katherine Philips: To My Excellent Lucasia, On Our Friendship----------------------------------
We are the stars which sing,We sing with our light;
We are the birds of fire,
We fly over the sky.
Our light is a voice:
Our voice is a light.
We make a road for spirits,
For the spirits to pass over.
We look down on the mountains.
This is the Song of the Stars.
Passamaquoddy and Micmac songThe Algonquin Legends of New England