l'amour et la mort

Now I shall not fear Death
Because I have known Love.
--from Mary Zimmerman's The Arabian Nights

This is the most memorable quote about love I have heard recently. On the surface and devoid of context, it seems blissfully romantic: "I shall not fear death because I have loved and have been beloved. Memories of love comfort and strengthen me. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, no evil will I fear, for thou art still with me," etc.

But in the context of the show, it's spoken by a young woman whom love has put through the wringer, and what she means is, "I shall not fear death because I have known love, painful and unrequited love, and nothing, nothing could be as deep and terrible as that."

Or, as Oscar Wilde put it, "The mystery of Love is greater than the mystery of Death."

Wishing you a mysterious Valentine's Day.

Image: "Death and Love," etching by Edvard Munch.