Listen to me, enchanting Spirit!

Yesterday I was free, soaring among the brooks and swimming in the sky. In the evenings I would sit on the highest branches, seeing castles and palaces in a city of colored clouds, a city built by the sun in an afternoon and destroyed before nightfall.

No, I was like a thought traveling alone through the east and west of the world, joyous in the good things and pleasures of life, delving deeply into the hidden secrets and mysteries of being.

I was like a dream striving beneath the dark of night. Through the slits of windows I entered the chambers of sleeping virgins, playing with their emotions. Then would I stand by the navels of youths and excite their desires. I would sit near the couches of old men and discover their hidden thoughts.

Today, enchantress, I met you and was poisoned by the kisses of your hand. I rose like a prisoner dragging my chains toward I know not what. It was as though I were intoxicated, seeking more of the wine that had stolen my will and kissing the palm of the hand that had slapped me.

But stop a little, enchantress, have I taken back my faculties and broken the fetters that wearied my feet? Have I smashed the cup from which I drank the poison that seemed so sweet to me. What do you wish me to do? Which path do you wish us to travel?

I ask for my freedom back. Will you be content with a free companion? “Can you stare at the face of the sun with open eyes or grasp the fire with steady hands?”

I have opened my wings a second time. Will you be the companion of a youth soaring like an eagle among the mountains, or like a lion passing the nights resting in the wilderness?

Will you be satisfied with the love of a man who has taken love as a friend but will not let it be his lord?

Will the passion of a heart suffice you, a heart enraptured but unwilling to surrender, that burns but will not melt?

Will you find peace with the affections of a soul that trembles before the storm but does not break, that shakes in the tempest but is not uprooted?

Will you be content with me as a companion, a companion who will seek to be neither master nor slave?

If so, here is my hand. Take it in your fair hand. Here is my body. Embrace it with your lovely arms. Here is my mouth. Kiss it with a long, deep, silent kiss.

THE LIFE OF LOVE

SPRING