"Must you delight in torturing yourself? Was ever such a mighty heart so weak?"

-- Jean Racine, Berenice (III.ii.815-16)

"May I tell her 'I love you' without trembling?

Already, ah, I tremble. My torn heart

Mistrusts this moment much as I desired it.

Long since, she put an end to all my hopes

And bade me never utter more my love.

For five years I kept silent; till today

I hid my passion under friendship's veil.

...

What shall I profit from this rash avowal?

Since I must go, why go, annoying her?

Let me withdraw, depart, without a word,

And far away let me forget or die.

What? Must she never know the pangs I suffer?

And must I always weep and gulp my tears?

-- ibid (I.ii.20-36)

Mediterranean Baroque

Baroque romance and passion. Just because it's so good.

So good.

Here are the words to the second one. I won't translate them--they're rather erotic; Song of Solomon erotic. Translate them yourself, if you wish.

Pigliate la paletta e vae pi’ ffoco

E va’ alla casa di lu ‘nnammurato

E passa duje ore ‘e juoco.

Si mamma se n’addona ‘e chiste juoco

Dille ca so’ state falelle de foco,

E vule di’ e llà, chello che vo’ la femmena fa!

Luce lu sole quanno è buono tiempo,

Luce lu pettu tujo, donna galante

Mpietto li tieni duje pugnali argiento.

A chi li tocchi bella, nci fa santo,

E ti li tocchi je ca so’ l’amante

E ‘mParaviso jamme certamente…

E vule di’ e llà, chello che vo’ la femmena fa!

Breathe

Happened upon this film today, and it was wonderful. Truly extraordinary; I recommend it wholeheartedly. I don't think I've ever seen a finer example of what True Love truly is.

"When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, 'Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?
She said,'No man, Lord.'
And Jesus said unto her, 'Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more.'" -- John 8:10,11

This is one of my very favorite stories in the Bible. But it has also always made me feel guilty. I've always read Jesus's final words to the woman as just a command. And when I read it, I remember that I always do sin again, and I ask myself why I just can't be good.

But just now something different and wonderful appeared to me as I read this passage: Jesus wasn't just telling her to go and be good; he was freeing her. "Go, and sin no more" was spoken in the same way as "Rise, take up your bed and walk." The cripple couldn't obey of his own power if those were just words, and neither could the sinner. It only works if The Word speaks the words, and makes one able to obey.

Joe Versus the Volcano - The Door to the Universe

This is one of my favorite scenes from Joe vs. the Volcano. The fantastic song the mariachis play is a Spanish adaptation of this:

Marooned Without You

from one of my all-time favorite movies

Why is my heart marooned without you?

The sun goes down, my dreams begin their refrain

I call to whatever holds you

My beloved, I wait and I wane.

Why is my heart marooned without you?

A tiny light upon the sea.

My heart is so afraid,

You have broken away;

Tell me darling, I pray

You will come to me soon.

Air and Angels

Twice or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,
Angels affect us oft, and worshipped be;
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is,
Love must not be, but take a body too,
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid Love ask, and now
That it assume thy body, I allow,
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love, I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw, I had love's pinnace overfraught;
Every thy hair for love to work upon
Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme, and scattering bright, can love inhere;
Then as an Angel, face and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,
So thy love may be my love's sphere;
Just such disparity
As is 'twixt Air and Angels' purity,
'Twixt women's love, and men's will ever be.

-- John Donne