A Love Poem of Hope
in Seven Languages
for my wife Noël

Valentines Day, 2009

My love, come listen as I seek
With seven tongues, and hope, on your
Sweet soul to let our Sovereign speak:
Je suis avec vous tous les jours.

He bids us come and learn to rest
Beneath his feather burden. Come feel,
He says, how light, how sweet, how blessed,
Porque me yugo es facil.

And if we fear what yet will be,
He tells us what we yet will see:
’al tiyra’ kiy ‘imkah aniy
temaktiykah biymiyn tsadkiy.

If darkness lingers on, and thus
Delays the precious light of dawn,
Fear not, because we know for us
God works panta eis agathon.

And if barbarians invade
The soul, and take our borderlands,
Together we say undismayed:
E tenebris lux Christi stands.

Gott hat durch Leiden uns gelerht,
   Dass wir kein Schmerz vergeuden;
Ob Abend lang das Weinen währt,
   Doch kommt des Morgens Freuden.