Lovers and Thespians

I dedicate this poem to someone special to me. Alas, poetry is my escape from the pain of unrequited love!

We knew well the shortness of mortal length

But this did not weaken our love and our faith

We loved with the sweetness of ambrosia¹

Passion as fatal as that of Pyramus  and Thisbe²

Oh, what craft of good Fate hath intervened

That my eyes see no one more than thee

Whose beauty is adored even by the gods

And makes men mistake thee for a goddess

(They say,  the gods made thee a mortal

To protect thee from Aphrodite’s jealousy)³

I cannot recall, but driven by thine perfection

I must have stolen one of Cupid’s arrows⁴

Wounded myself with its envenomed tip

As I trespassed thy soul through thine eyes

Inflicted upon myself a ravenous obsession

For thee , only thee; I yearned to be with thee

Eternally, but Death will come to bid for thee

I asked the gods to save thee but to no response

Thou pleaded for me, they were drawn by thee

And so Atropos⁵ bent her abhorred principles

And to us lovers’ pitiful distress gave remedy

As her own heart was moved and turned

By a love that not even a dip unto Plegethon⁶  

Could be purged from heart and memory

Hence, Death’s mistress lent us more life

And granted time to each of our mortal lease 

For mortals are thespians in an eternal drama

And we lovers have acted our parts in faith

Heaven was pleased and extended our breath

Which through sweet kisses move and pass

We remember the gifts of life, of faith, of love

Though eternity forbid by divine instruction

On the hour the plutonic gates be howling

Bear with thee my kiss, my love, nothing more

That when thou shall cross the mouth of Lethe⁷ 

Thou shall not forget me for I shall be in waiting

On Elysian fields⁸, I have prepared for thee

A lace of amaranths⁹ and a wreath of primrose¹⁰

To celebrate our love as the divine stars dance

Upon the bounds of the Empyrean¹¹ domain

Author's Note

1 Ambrosia – drink which gave the gods immortality and purity; Ambrosia is also a flowering plant which symbolizes reciprocated love.

2 Pyramus and Thisbe – two lovers from one of the tales in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Pyramus was a handsome man while Thisbe was the most beautiful woman in Babylonia. Their families forbade their love and their houses, though adjacent to each other, were divided by a thick wall. But Pyramus and Thisbe loved so fervently and they found a crack on the wall through which their whispers passed. One night, they agreed to meet beneath the mulberry tree near the tomb of Ninus. Thisbe arrived first and she encountered a lion nearby. She fled out of fear and left her veil on the ground. The lion found the veil and having recently eaten an unfortunate prey, stained it with blood. Pyramus arrived not long after and saw the lion with the bloodied veil in its jaw. Pyramus, believing that Thisbe was killed by the lion, struck himself with his sword out of grief. Knowing that the lion has left the place, Thisbe returned to the site and found Pyramus’ dead body with his chest upon his own sword. Struck with great sadness, she took Pyramus’ sword and killed herself.

3 Aphrodite – the goddess of beauty and love

4 Cupid – the Roman equivalent of Eros, son of Venus (Aphrodite) and Mars (Ares); he is described to have the appearance of a child and uses his arrows to make people fall in love with the first person they see.

5 Atropos – the last of the three Moirae, three sisters who were the incarantions of destiny; Atropos is the one who cuts the thread of life with the shears of death.

6 Plegethon – one of the five rivers of the underworld; Plegethon was the river of fire.

7 Lethe – one of the five rivers of the underworld; Lethe was the river which made souls forget about their lives as mortals.

8 Elysian field – a region of the underworld reserved for those chosen by the gods, the heroes, the virtuous, and the righteous.

9 Amaranth – a flowering plant which symbolizes immortal love

10 Primrose – a flowering plant which symbolizes eternal love

11 Empyrean – the highest heaven occupied by the element of pure fire