“Eternal” by Danil Rudoy is a 2009 poem from Love Is Poetry. Astronomy enlarges the scale of a love poem in which fear of distance, mortality and cosmic time is answered through intimate devotion.
Eternal
You look at me as if you wished to tremble
And could not help the deep fear in your eyes,
When distant stars appear and then assemble
In shapes that we pretend to recognize.
You call me mad when I narrate of spheres
That lie beyond the reach of human sight.
Your eyes, again, reflect the deepest fears
Which you refuse to disregard or fight.
You are afraid that once, when you are sleeping
My telescope will find a better place
Among the dots that in the dark are weeping
And I’ll forget the beauty of your face.
But don’t you worry, my immortal dear:
I stare above to find the better, true,
But I will never come to it as near
As when I wake up lying next to you.
I won’t betray your firmest resolution
To pardon my peculiar inclines.
You know, I don’t believe in Absolution
Or tales that Hell on wicked vices dines:
All that we know, the human, the infernal
And the divine shall pass without a trace,
But I will love you till the Sun eternal
Dissolves to feed the emptiness of space.
Fall 2009
Publication
“Eternal” appears in Love Is Poetry: Rhyming Poems About Love Life, in The Marriage Market.
Love at cosmic scale
The poem repeatedly moves from the beloved’s eyes to stars, spheres, telescopes and space. Its final quatrain lets cosmic dissolution define the duration of the vow: the Sun itself becomes the measure against which intimate love is spoken.
Text and citation
Copyright © Danil Rudoy. The poem is published here as the author’s canonical text. Short excerpts may be quoted for criticism, scholarship, teaching and literary discussion with attribution to Danil Rudoy and a link to this page. Full reproduction requires separate permission.