unrequited love

Chinese New Yearand Valentine's Day fellon the same day thisyear. We talked about apoem appropriate to theNew Year last week.

We now turn to anotherpoem appropriate to Valentine's Day.

The poem is written by W.H. Auden(1907-1973) about love. More exactly, it isabout unrequited love (單戀).

Far from dispiriting (令人沮喪), the poem TheMore Loving One liberates the reader from theconditioned feeling of gloom (憂鬱) when one'slove is not returned. The poem begins with thepoet admiring the stars in the sky. The thoughtcomes to him that the stars do not "give a damn"(在乎) about him andThat, for all they care, I can go to hell.Towards the end, he also realises that if thestars were to go out, he would get used to thestarless sky. In fact,I should learn to look at an empty skyAnd feel its total darkness sublime.

It seems, therefore, an imbalance of affectionis almost inevitable (無可避免). It happens quiteoften in life when one loves a person, the persondoes not love one back. Auden's response iscounterintuitive (有違常理) but wise:If equal affection cannot be,Let the more loving one be me.