Readings
Readings to enrich the ceremonies celebrating couples and their devotion.
“i carry your heart with me”
i carry your heart with me
i carry it in my heart
i am never without it
anywhere i go you go, my dear;
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling
i fear no fate
for you are my fate, my sweet i want
no world for beautiful you are my world, my true
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart i carry it in my heart
e.e. cummings
Pablo Neruda’s Cien Sonetos de Amor, Soneto XLIX
“Es hoy: todo el ayer se fue cayendo”
(It’s today: all of yesterday dropped away)
It’s today: all of yesterday dropped away
among the fingers of the light and the sleeping eyes.
Tomorrow will come on its green footsteps;
no one can stop the river of the dawn.
No one can stop the river of your hands,
your eyes and their sleepiness, my dearest.
You are the trembling of time, which passes
between the vertical light and the darkening sky.
The sky folds its wings over you,
lifting you, carrying you to my arms
with its punctual, mysterious courtesy.
That’s why I sing to the day and to the moon,
to the sea, to time, to all the planets,
to your daily voice, to your nocturnal skin.
Pablo Neruda’s Sonnet XVII
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off
in secret, between the shadow and the soul
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does
not exist, nor you
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
G. Gibran’s The Prophet
Then Almita spoke again and said, “and what of Marriage, master?”
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same
music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
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