Bohème Magazine Online

"I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's.
I will not reason and compare:
My business is to create."

     - William Blake

Love - The English word "love" comes from the Indo-European root *lubh-, a form of another root meaning to care, to desire, to love. The English word "believe" is also derived from this last root, from the Old English word geléfa, ("belief, faith") by way of an Old Germanic word *galaubjan; meaning "to hold dear." Another cousin of the English word is the Latin libére, to be dear. The word used by my ancestors, however, is grádh which is related to the Sanskrit gûrdháya ("praise"), the English word "grateful," and the Greek word géras, meaning "honour." That's a lot to pack in to a four or five letter word. Appreciate the gravity of saying "I love you": "I care about you, I desire you, I love you, I believe in you, I have faith in you, I hold you dear, you make me happy, I praise you, I'm thankful for you, I honour you." In Gaelic, you say you love the same way you say you feel any emotion you have no control over - it is with you, at you, on you: tá ocras orm (hunger is on me), tá brón orm (sorrow is on me); tá áthas orm (joy is on me), tá grádh agam duit (love is at me to you). Love is all of these things too: I hunger for you, I'm sorry, you are my happiness : I have love for you the same way I am sorry, I am hungry for you, and unhappy without you. je t'aime je t'aime je t'aime

saying again
if you do not teach me I shall not learn
...
if you do not love me I shall not be loved
if I do not love you I shall not love

     - Samuel Beckett, "Cascando"

Copyright © 2004 by Eamon Graham. May not be reproduced or used without permission of the author.
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