One evening, I went searching eagerly for something I couldn’t define. I don’t remember much, but I recall my feet carrying me to that place. This sea knows me; it returns all my lost things. Perhaps it’s because my soul was shaped by its breeze.
The sea wiped two tears off my cheeks as the sun’s gentle hand patted the shoulder of the longing cloud. That’s when I realized the raging heart of the sea was dancing with joy for some mysterious, otherworldly reason. I placed my gentle hand over my aching heart, wiped away my tears, and witnessed an enigmatic radiance—something resembling love beyond understanding.
Oh, sea...
I came to you today, barefoot and bare-hearted, walking lightly as the breath of my sorrow raced ahead of me. I want to tell you everything. Will you listen, just for today? You know him well—perhaps even better than I do. Yet, I know every little detail about him, not from what he’s told me, but from what my heart has heard and felt. He claims to be strong and unyielding, but I see him as a tender child. It hurts me to see him struggle.
If only I could be a potion of joy that seeps into his depths. If only he could see me not just as a sensitive writer, but as the woman who would shed her cloak of writing forever for him. I’d give him my life without hesitation. For his sake, I’d trade all my dreams, because he is my sweetest dream.
Why does he seek forgiveness? For stealing her heart for a few days, even as she confesses to loving him for eternity? She doesn’t want an all-consuming love; she’s content with a warm smile from him, a touch of kindness to soothe her wounds. Perhaps love hasn’t disappeared from life as he claims, for her life has become him, and so, by necessity, her love must be him too.
Oh, sea...
It pains me to think guilt might surprise him in an empty moment. I love him so much that I would die if he so much as uttered a sigh of pain. He says he wishes for her, yet he keeps wavering between being and not being. Isn’t it enough to love and wish and let fate surprise us gently? He loves to love her but fears for her because of it.
He fears for me because of him, while I fear life without him. My days are desolate in this absence he asks me to bear and forgive. He claims his heart is barren of love, that his emotions have gone numb. But when I looked into his eyes, I saw love and life—I saw myself.
How can someone so seemingly cold have an embrace warmer than that of a mother on the night she holds her newborn for the first time?
Tell him, sea...
Perhaps he’ll listen to you. Tell him his heart is capable of embracing love. Tell him I was wrong to call him a knight without a horse. Give him his steed so he can rush to me before time rushes us both away.
How can I spread love if you’re not with me? How can a heart overflow without its pulse?
He says he needs to breathe me in, yet when I told him I need him like air, he suffocated me! He fears my attachment, while I hang onto his promise. He fears a harsh tomorrow, while I’d trade a lifetime for a moment of unity with him. I’m not afraid of risking everything with him. Even if he led me to death, I’d walk there blindfolded.
Do you know what it means to wake up one day and find him gone, unwilling to give our love a chance at life? It means being killed by the hands that once held me tenderly.
I don’t ask for a love of years or a lifetime. Let him take all the time he needs to let his heart beat freely. But don’t leave me bound by waiting; I can’t bear it anymore. Don’t shatter the last chance for love in my broken world!
He has become my entire world. Don’t ruin my life, even if you think fate demands it. I am grateful to a destiny that brought us together. We are the makers of destiny, my dear. Take a chance on love in my kingdom, and be the ruler of a court overflowing with passion, longing, and desire.
I, too, am afraid—afraid of a world without you. It pains me to break for a man who both wants me and doesn’t, who loves me yet fears his love for me. Enough fear, enough hesitation, enough distance!
Oh, sea, tell him...
Tell him to hold me as you hold him. I flail amidst the chaos of wishes, and only he can still my turmoil. He was on the brink of a beautiful confession, but the words got caught in the tremble of his broken voice. I held onto him with all the strength my love could muster. He drew closer, held me tighter, pulled me into him, and said:
“I want you.”
And just as joy was about to flood me, he added:
“But I can’t.”
“Should I leave?” I asked him in pain.
“Don’t go.”
“Should I stay?”
“Stay, but…”
“What do you want from me?”
“I want you.”
“I’m yours.”
“Will you give yourself to me?”
“I’m yours.”
“Will you keep me within you?”
“I see no one but you.”
He holds me close and says:
“I’m afraid.”
Solve this, my love.
“You’re the solution,” he replies.
And I laugh in the midst of confusion and ambiguity.
If you wanted to leave, you’d have already left.
You want to stay, but fear is killing you.
It’s killing me, too.
Faced with the choice between losing you now or after two poems and a war, I choose tomorrow’s loss to savor a bit more of you today. I will find the magic phrase to open your silky heart wide, just for me, but promise you won’t leave. Don’t destroy the joy of our union, and ask yourself: How could you wish to leave a woman who wishes time itself would die when she’s with you?
Oh, sea… answer him!
Tell him to stay. And as for you, let your heart tread lightly with love at its own pace. Time, my dear, is the answer to everything. And if time betrays me someday, I’ll still be grateful for even a fleeting moment in your heart.
But don’t leave—and if you must, then stay close even in your distance!
