The Joy of Defeat

 Do you know the flame-of-the-forest flower?
 A giant of a tree, blooms bursting at the very crown. 
 Standing on tiptoes, stretching your arms — there's simply no way to touch them!
 To pluck one, you'd have to climb right to the top and tear it free!
 And the fragrance? It spreads alone through all the air, wearing the very guise of wind!
 Slowly it reveals its existence, and when time comes to fade,
 before dawn steals the dew, in streams of dim light
 it lies quietly spread like an embroidered quilt.
 Will you remain like that, as the flame-flower of my life?
 I'll set a royal throne above my head.
 Or else sit there, and rule your kingdom...however you please!
  
 As a child I used to gather flame-flowers, you know?
 Even today, somehow, that one flower alone...
 I call 'the royal flower!'
 Will you give me some, if you can?
 On some special day, a basket full of spring-colored flame-flowers...will you bring them?
 Tell me, do flame-flowers bloom only in spring?
 Then it all fits perfectly...
 In my life, 'you' means nothing less than an entire spring season!
 When you come, love's joy seems to splash and drench everything!
  
 Think about it — what if we opened a shop of love?
 Don't say again that your head is full of such wild notions!
 I want exactly such a shop...imagine, then
 I'd arrange a spread of multi-colored loves and plop down at your door...
 And right away, whatever color you fancy...you'd be choosing, just by looking!
 Wouldn't that be good? What a famine there is of colorful love!
  
 Every day I fall into some worry...
 What color of love shall I give you today!
 You surely know the night jasmine?
 Clinging to branches, drunk on fragrance all night, before it fades
 wearing dawn's dew on its body, gently like a young girl's tender form
 how peacefully it sleeps on earth's breast...have you seen it?
 What exquisite beauty! Pressed against the soil
 even then, what a sweetly heavy flower it is!
 With what an innocent, pure white body
 it crashes down on earth's breast in the joy of defeat!
 You're wondering — what joy can there be in defeat!
 The defeat of love...that's true victory in the guise of being conquered!
 Those who haven't learned to lose in love haven't yet understood love itself!
  
 Will you give me a small piece of space in your heart?
 I've longed for ages to crash down carelessly, fearlessly on that generous land...
 Why not come today as a fresh red hibiscus? Will you come?
 Five enormous petals...there the body spreads...how full...how pure that form!
 That fullness and purity suits only you, beloved!
 Can't love be soft like a flower then?
 Must it bind itself only in thorns every moment? Is it born only to die defeated?
 Love — it changes form, yet changing form, love remains love till the very end!
  
 Actually, you know what? I really need to move you away!
 My wayward reading table...I must move you from there
 and put you somewhere else, there's simply no other way!
 Sit steadily beside my bed...just keep gazing with unwavering eyes, that's no harm...
 That's actually better!
 Burn me all night if you must, but at least I get a little rest during the day!
 Otherwise, the moment I sit to write, you'll say, "Hurry up! I'm sitting here!"
 What are you writing so much, tell me quickly!
 This is much better...you sitting quietly by my bedside, near my head.
  
 Tell me, why do they look at me like that?
 Don't they know yet that I belong only to you?
 When they want to tell me stories of love,
 I feel like pushing them far away with one shove!
 Who gave them such courage...to keep staring at me...like that?
 Why don't you scold them? Haven't you learned to scold for the one you love?
 You're such a fool...causing all sorts of trouble...still you understand nothing!