Sweet Fate

She loved me and I adored her.

Like Romeo and Juliette,

we were so young,

when we first met.

However, the end of our love strings just couldn't meet,

since neither of our parents agreed.

We're of Javanese descent, aren't we?

And thus couldn't just shrug off our custom rules, could we?

It's our belief that without our parents' blessing

we won't ever be happily living.

Thus we obeyed, though our hearts were bleeding,

leaving each of us to face a life of suffering.

But time seemed to eventually heal her pain,

as she later got married to a man of her parents' choice

And I, too, happened to come across a woman

whom I made my partner for life.

So each of us was to live with someone different

and was to always hear a stranger's voice.

Later I learned her husband had died

and I became a widower, too.

Thus neither of us now was any longer tied

to someone we hadn't been much attached to.

Days changed into months and months into years.

Even dozens of years went by.

My hair now has turned all white, my body weakening.

Nothing much helps, however hard I try.

But when one day I happened to see her again,

I noticed that her appearance had changed also.

An elderly lady she's now and I an old man,

both more experienced and wiser, though.

Despite my going on eighty

and she's six and seventy,

the flame of love, miraculously,

is still there flickering, as might

the firefly in the depth of night

Well, feel free to mock us,

make fun of us,

but it's true, an old woman and an old man

have fallen in love again.

The end of the story is,

the love, that once was broken into pieces,

we now mend and strengthen

in sacred marriage.

Well, I believe that love

is like a diamond stone.

It shall never rust

till the end of time.

By Djoeweriah Poorwo S.