More constant than existence

One.
So many days have passed, we are together.
How many moments I have witnessed in feeling—together indeed.
In shadow and half-light, in fierce enchantment, two hands remain together, moving as one.
How many paths we have walked, living within a breath's distance of each other.
 
Perhaps you could never know this,
never understood that I am right beside you.
I never came forward, your eyes never saw me,
yet I have seen you, heard you—so close—you never realized.
 
I will remain beside you, know this.
At the path's beginning you will find me, at its end I will be there too.
Friend, do not search for me, only search for yourself.
If ever you listen closely to that heart, there alone you will find me.
 
This heart yearns to walk with you in silence,
I know the song of silence—so sweet, so fierce!
Let us hear that song together, float on its melody into the unknown.
What magic it is that love binds the heart—we'll learn together in hide and seek.
 
When I am with you, I will not speak a single word,
how close I am to you—you will never know, not even by mistake!
In dark nights, in strange dawns, even if you lose your way, do not fear—reach out your hand and you will find this invisible me.
I will carry you forward, wearing away my entire body, but never stop in fear.
 
All this I will do in silence, not a word will escape my lips,
I will listen to your heart's words then, when that mind desires something!
Never try to know me, if you can, just see me in feeling,
search for my soul with care and tenderness—when you find it, then you'll understand.
 
Come, let us place hand in hand, walk together, sing life's song in unison.
All beautiful moments, let us gather them in the heart's chamber and in memory.
We'll hear the sound, the echo too—learn what whispers surround us today.
We'll know life's magic mystery through feeling, pull all hidden joys within our touch!
 
Now as the curtain falls,
there is no regret, no sorrow.
Only one guilt haunts me—
in some strange understanding, numb reckoning, I keep speaking to myself...
You simply never knew this love—
through my own neglect. All my unspoken dear love words,
why does death take them away? Why could I never tell you,
before losing in fate's game?
Where living emotion holds no value,
what worth do dead emotions have, tell me?
 
Two.
However far I've walked searching for you,
I've found you that much on the path beside me.
Just as in tide and ebb the river's current can be felt,
so your existence or non-existence declares: 'You are here!'
 
At twilight or at dawn, in palace or thatched hut,
in other rooms, in wild winds I have searched for you frantically—so many times.
The lover who lives within me has found you in his very eyes.
On his lips, laughing, I see peering out your shy smile.
 
I have seen you among those homeless children,
found you when I gave them winter clothes for their bodies.
How many elderly I see who cannot eat twice a day, have no warm clothes to wear,
to find you, O love, I have listened to their sorrows as much as I could.
 
Saving half my monthly expenses, I have given street children toys—cheap though they were,
bringing free education to poor homes, how much light burns—all for you!
However much winter sun has fallen as warmth, your heat has spread that much—there's no deception in it, you know!
At festivals I have smeared my cheeks with color, reddened my hands—all in your name!
 
Sitting at my favorite stall in tea's steam I think of you,
in hot rice like blooming flowers I see you there, blossoming,
wherever I've gone wandering, perhaps forgetting to take the water bottle,
still I have never left you behind anywhere. You are so much greater than my mistakes!
 
I am not alone, you are beside me as the pole star,
when I lose my way in unknown lands, you show the path, smiling.
You have gone far away, you did well,
you have saved your 'I'.
You died selfishly—
you survived, you killed me!
As long as you were beside me, beloved,
I would have lived for you alone.
Today you are not, alas, beside me,
my chest aches terribly,
how many days it's been since I cried,
yet I live still, will keep living—in your memory—for you alone!