You are my life and I love you. [UK] Appreciation of the love poems of Byron's "The Maid of Athens"
You are my life, I love you.
[British] Byron
Girl of Athens, before we part,
Give me my heart, give my heart back!
Or, since it has been separated from me,
Keep it and take the rest!
Please listen to my parting oath: < /p>
You are my life and I love you.
I want to rely on the unfettered curly hair,
Every Aegean wind chases it,
I want to rely on the jet-trimmed Eyes,
The eyelashes kiss the blush on your cheeks;
I will swear by those wild deer-like eyes:
You are my life ,I love you.
And the red lips that I have wanted to taste for a long time,
And the light and tight waist;
I want to rely on these flowers of love,
They are better than all verbal expressions;
I want to say, with a string of joys and sorrows of love:
You are my life, I love you .
Girl of Athens, we parted;
Think of me when you are lonely.
Although I am flying towards Istanbul,
Athens captures my heart and soul:
Can I not love you? No. !
You are my life, I love you!
(Translated by Cha Liangzheng)
From 1809 to 1811, Byron traveled abroad. In June 1809, he left London, passing through Portugal, Spain, Malta, and Albania, and arrived in Athens, Greece, in December of that year. In Athens he lived in the same house as Mrs. Theodora Macree, the widow of the late British Vice-Consul. The lady has three daughters who often play under a lemon tree in the garden. Their names are Teresa, Mariana, and Kadink. Byron fell deeply in love with Theresa. He heard that the Eastern custom of expressing love is to cut one's chest with a dagger in front of a girl, so he did this in front of Teresa to show that he had given his heart to the girl. Teresa accepted this declaration of love in stride as a fitting tribute to her beauty. Soon, Byron left Athens for Constantinople to continue his journey. "The Maid of Athens" was written by Byron based on this experience of his own, and was written in 1810.
The most wonderful line in the poem is "You are my life, I love you." This line of the original poem is written in Greek and is particularly eye-catching in the poem.
Life is something that everyone cannot leave without. Without life, man would cease to exist. When the poet said goodbye to the Athenian girl, he made such an oath to the girl to express his eternal love for the girl. He regards the girl as his life. Just like a man cannot live without life, he cannot live without the girl's love; he will love the girl forever just as he loves his own life.
The four stanzas of the poem all describe the scene when "I" and the girl parted. "I" once fell in love with the Athenian girl, as if I had given her my heart. Before leaving, I said that I wanted to ask the girl for my heart back. However, this was not the truth, but it was just a desire to advance before retreating. After testing, what he really said was: he is willing to leave all his heart to the girl. As a result, such a touching line appeared in the poem: "Since it has separated from me: keep it and take the rest!" Since I love the girl, then everything about me belongs to the girl, both of them. Their lives have been combined, and no one can live without the other. Following this poetic sentiment, only the five or six lines of this section of the poem reveal new meanings, leading to a powerful parting oath: "You are my life, I love you." The last six lines of this section of the poem are full of emotions. The development is full of twists and turns, and finally the main verses of the whole poem are introduced, which brings the emotional concentration contained in this poem to the extreme.
The second section writes about the beauty of the Athenian girl. She has loose curly hair, and when the sea breeze blows, they look light and elegant, as if they are being chased by the sea breeze, or playing with the sea breeze. She has a pair of big, black eyes, and the most charming thing is her long black eyelashes. When she blinks, her long eyelashes can touch her cheeks, as if they are kissing the red skin there. She also has a pair of nimble eyes, reminiscent of an alert wild deer. This touching portrait vividly depicts the characteristics of an oriental girl by the Mediterranean. It is so charming and touching. No wonder "I" want to regard her as my own life and fall in love with her sincerely.
The third section recalls the love history between "me" and the girl. "My" pure and sincere admiration for the Athenian girl made him extremely cautious in his actions, so much so that he never kissed the girl's red lips and never hugged the girl's light and tight waist. However, he once received love flowers from a girl. The flowers express the girl's heart better than any words.
Their love has had twists and turns, joy and bitterness. However, no matter what, this love is as indispensable to "me" as life.
The last section returns to the farewell. Since parting is inevitable, his only hope for the girl is that she will always think of me after the breakup. Immediately afterwards, he also confessed to the girl his most heart-wrenching words at this moment: "Although I am flying towards Istanbul (note: Constantinople), Athens captures my heart and soul." These two lines are the most moving lines in the fourth stanza. It’s really a different place physically and mentally, but the soul is tied to Athens. His heart and soul were tightly held by Athens because "I" could not separate myself from the Athenian girl.
The whole poem describes "my" feelings for the Athenian girl in an extremely delicate and profound way. In the poem, each stanza ends with "You are my life, I love you." Each stanza deepens the meaning of this central verse from a different angle. It is a song that sings four sighs, deeply touching the reader's heart. soul. The whole poem begins with farewell and ends with farewell. It begins with heart-warming and ends with heart-to-heart communication. The artistic conception is complete and the meaning is profound.