Battle Song
LOVE CONSTANT BEYOND DEATH
The final shadow that will close my eyes
will in its darkness take me from white day
and instantly untie the soul from lies
and flattery of death, and find its way,
and yet my soul won’t leave its memory
of love there on the shore where it has burned:
my flame can swim cold water and has learned
to lose respect for laws’ severity.
My soul, whom a God made its prison of,
my veins, which a liquid humor fed to fire,
my marrows, which have gloriously flamed,
will leave their body, never their desire;
they will be ash but ash in feeling framed;
they will be dust but will be dust in love.
(Francisco Gomez de Quevedo, 1580-1645. Translated by Willis Barnstone)
Venus writes:
LOVE CONSTANT BEYOND DEATH
The final shadow that will close my eyes
will in its darkness take me from white day
and instantly untie the soul from lies
and flattery of death, and find its way,
and yet my soul won’t leave its memory
of love there on the shore where it has burned:
my flame can swim cold water and has learned
to lose respect for laws’ severity.
My soul, whom a God made its prison of,
my veins, which a liquid humor fed to fire,
my marrows, which have gloriously flamed,
will leave their body, never their desire;
they will be ash but ash in feeling framed;
they will be dust but will be dust in love.
(Francisco Gomez de Quevedo, 1580-1645. Translated by Willis Barnstone)
Venus writes:
The more important a certain subject is to us, the more difficult it is to address it. For me this poem, although written by another and especially by a male, presents the epitome of the burden that females have been carrying throughout history and the depths that our passion leads us to when put under restraint. This is a deeply feminine perspective, to endure pain and overcome all obstacles, especially when being in love. Being a female is essentially a dual role of life-giver and peaceful warrior and the deepest connection to the feminine displays a magnanimity in both enduring hardships and sacrificing all that it takes to reach that balance between the womb and the divinity it embodies.
