Happy birthday to Monchéri......

.....and to think that nearly six years ago, I met a tall dark stranger, here in Andalusia....
a very very nice one....

It was Monchéri's birthday yesterday and as you know, if you have been following this blog....of course, you know.... I'm quite besotted with my darling Spanish man...the one I feel like thanking for all the sunshine he pours into my heart.....the one I want to dedicate this poem to .....feliz cumpleaños mi amor !.....

Desmayarse, atreverse, estar furioso,
áspero, tierno, liberal, esquivo,
alentado, mortal, difunto, vivo,
leal, traidor, cobarde y animoso;

no hallar fuera del bien centro y reposo,
mostrarse alegre, triste, humilde, altivo,
enojado, valiente, fugitivo,
satisfecho, ofendido, receloso;

huir el rostro al claro desengaño,
beber veneno por licor süave,
olvidar el provecho, amar el daño;

creer que un cielo en un infierno cabe,
dar la vida y el alma a un desengaño;
esto es amor, quien lo probó lo sabe.

Lope de Vega

To feel faint, daring, furious, surly, tender, generous, evasive, encouraged, mortal, like a corpse, alive, loyal, a traitor; a coward and also brave.

To feel disoriented and ill at ease away from your beloved

To show yourself happy, sad, humble, proud, angry, courageous and in cowardly disappointment,

To drink poison as if a sweet potion, to forsake gain in favor of harm,

To believe that heaven in a hell can fit, to give up life and soul for inevitable frustration, all of this is love; he who has tasted it knows it well.

Lope de Vega (prose translation by G.J. Racz)

pics : my castle in spain