Yves Bonnefoy, tr. by Anthony Rudolf, from The Selected Poems; “Douve Speaks,”
“Yet sometimes one trembling star comes in the clear sky and makes me think the world beautiful,”
— Virginia Woolf, from The Complete Works; “The Waves,” published c. 1931
“I feel you living inside me with the totality of your shapes and beings. The murmur of your trees circulates among my bones. While everything around me sleeps, I work like a bee in the hive of the spirit.”
— Jorge Carrera Andrade, tr. by Steven Brown from “Dream of Farmhouses,”
“My virtue is to love you. My body, my blood, my heart, my life, my soul are employed in loving you. Beyond my love, I am nothing, I understand nothing, I want nothing. Loving you, loving you, loving you, that is my one and only perfection.”
— Juliette Drouet, from a letter to Victor Hugo written c. January 1868
“I live to love you and I love you to live,”
— Juliette Drouet, from a letter to Victor Hugo written c. September 1853
“It’s my love that will make me immortal. When I am dead, I will love you still. My body and my life will be used up before one single particle of my love disappears.”
— Juliette Drouet, from a letter to Victor Hugo written c. November 1835
“You are aware. That is your protection, that is your gift: awareness.”
— Jean LeBlanc, from “A New Prayer for Daughters,” wr. c. October 1969