eternity

“The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked.

He saw eternity in her eyes.

Her eyes… were dark and held the galaxy, every star in her eyes shone like no other. A masterpiece he called it; a true marvel. The earth had seven wonders but he would argue that she was the 8th.

The moon.

Lovers tend to compare their second half to the moon but no one could compare to his. Oh how he hoped to get a glimpse of her every night. He admired her in the pitch black heavens upon the clear night from afar. Her colour, white gold; an eternal stoic grace placed in the very heavens he admired her from. Her warm milky glow was indeed a sight to die for… A death he looked forward to every night.

See, some may say star-crossed lovers are always ill fated but if it’s truly love, is it really ill fated? Yes it was an uncanny pathway, but his love for her was unmatched. A cruel sacrifice he had to make for her as dawn breaks was always the moment he looked forward to the most. A sudden eagerness grew inside him as he realised the time he had spent gazing from afar.

Closer and closer they got, dancing in the sky with the stars carelessly, breathless. Colour erupting in the atmosphere, the lightest any sort of darkness could get. Dawn was indeed breaking. shakily he approaches her, the butterflies in his systems had him with heightened fight or flight tendencies.

There was something about the adrenaline he looked forward to every night. He took his time leaning in for a kiss knowing that when it was all over it was going to hurt for an eternity. The kiss ended too quickly , it was time to let go.

Letting go was always the part that killed them both in the end. The tears welled in both their eyes as they departed from each other, a gentle smile on both their faces as they finally let go of each other’s embrace. As he bled into the surroundings she turned for a final glance of him painting the sky before slowly ebbing into the dark heavens once again taking her place as the shining pearl in the depths of the sky. “Here’s to another eternity”.

She saw eternity in his eyes.

“I can die happy,” she replied.

just in case you didn’t understand the dialogue

月が綺麗ですね | tsuki ga kirei desu ne translates to “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” This phrase is a more poetic way of saying I love you. During Japanese writer Natsume Sōseki’s (1867-1916) teaching years, he supposedly overheard a student translating “I love you” rather awkwardly into its literal and direct translation: “Ware Kimi wo Aisu.” Soseki believed—as a product of his time and culture in the Meiji period—that this direct translation rejected Japanese sensibility. Thus, this more subtle, nuanced translation of “the moon is beautiful…” was born.

You can use this phrase with someone you like, while you’re under the moon. An appropriately literary response to this would be 死んでもいいわ | shindemo iiwa (I can die happy). This is the translated from the works of novelist Shimei Futabatei (1864-1909).