Can we all just take a moment and think about how great love is? Truly, how often does one get to sit back and say, "Love is what fuels this fire?" I'm not isolating this subject solely to the romantic interest (although, I must allude to the fact that my mind is there), but the genuine love of another family member, idea or thing will be sufficient enough for the point I am trying to make. Love is what gets my gears grinding, whether it is the love I have for my students, the love of sport- albeit soccer and fishing are quite opposites- or the love of my parents and the respect I seek from them; all of this is motivation behind the alarm clock in the morning. And yet, even in destitute times, would one seek for love? Is love the isolating factor that makes us human? My beagle dog would beg to differ.
Tadeusz Borowski did seek to express love, which is why I am enthralled to share with you his beautiful love poetry he wrote his future wife. Borowski is not an average household name concerning Holocaust memoria. After multiple years of oppression by the SS regime, Borowski and his wife both survived Auschwitz II, and yet he took his life after ironically through inhaling the fumes of a gas oven three days prior to the birth of his first child in 1951. I cannot imagine the grief his wife must have felt, especially knowing the sentiment he once felt towards her and life. Let's take a minute to cherish possibly the most beautiful falling-in-love short poem I have ever read. (Trans. Addison Bross)
"I'm dreamy today. Noise from the street,
the sky's curtain's rustlings, every
sound comes in like the horizon's smoke
through a mist.
....It's how at night
I take your hair in my hand, let its
waves flow through my palm and
stay quiet, full of you,
as sleep is quiet now in me."
Rest in peace, Borowski, and thank you for sharing that moment with us.
