article · Issue No. 11, November 1952 · p. 15

Talk of the Heart: This Melody!

Aphrodite

حديث القلب - هذا اللحن ! · افروديت

Yes, this is your melody! — your favorite melody!.. Its echo answers within me, a stirring tremor, and how quickly it carries me aloft... and in something like the flutter of a lash I find myself in your world — yours... A few counted minutes I live with you, and with your beloved melody... as though the fifteen years were five minutes!...

★

... With this melody you come back to me, strong and unbridled, like a splinter of volcanic lava!... It is summertime, and I am alone on the balcony of our house, listening to the whispering of the pines in the night... Suddenly, you rise up before me! To this day I do not know from where you descended!! And in your hand was something you thrust toward me, saying: “These are melodies I chose for you myself. They are the heritage of the world's music. And this one is my favorite melody... Play it for me now, while I lie back in the face of the moon. If you only knew what this melody means to me! It is the ‘Hymn of Life’ — so remember me whenever its strains pass your hearing, or your mind...”

★

Yes, this is your melody, your favorite melody itself — and how quickly its lulling breaths fade away, while I am alone in the night, with my turbulent, bewildered memories...
... No moon over my balcony... and no companion!

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