21 Aug 2018: "I'll Be a Tree" by Sandor Petofi
I'll be a tree, if you are its flower,
Or a flower, if you are the dew-
I'll be the dew, if you are the sunbeam,
Only to be united with you.
My lovely girl, if you are the Heaven,
I shall be a star above on high;
My darling, if you are hell-fire,
To unite us, damned I shall die.
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The peom is too cliche. I like the 2nd verse better.
ReplyDeleteThis poem reminds me of the episode I heard today. In Petofi's time men had the freedom to marry for love because they could get jobs and work, but women had to marry for economics and status. I wonder if the hell fire girl is related to her class?
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/12/584531641/when-did-marriage-become-so-hard
This poem comes from such a different time than our own. Where love was more distant and romance existed with cliche fervor. When I was younger and head over heels for this type of romance I always wished that I was born into this age...as it was so very hard to find. Now, love is altogether described so differently in my body and in my mind. Not better, nor worse, just quite different.
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ReplyDeleteAs I went on my dog walk today on this beautiful island of Oahu (minus the category 4 hurricane warning at the moment)...I realized just how much the first metaphor makes sense- the flowering trees here are just magnificent! One of my favorites is the well-known plumeria tree. We have two different versions in our yard and part of the year it stays bare with just green leaves and the other part the flowers come to pair its true beauty to the fullest. The tree completes itself by adding the flower- its truest Nature. Petofi describes this coming together as the love he describes- the most natural form of his life is a life known in love with her. It is not simply a meeting of two new things, but an acknowledgment of destiny!
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