For Thobeka.
The only beauty I have named
You are the only beauty I have named.
Not a summer measured against a day,
not a rose newly sprung and soon to fade:
the name itself is the mark that does not move.
Your eyes are my lost world.
I walked them once and have not found the road back.
Whatever a moon has meant, whatever a sun still sings,
it is already in the look you turn on me.
Your body, sculpted by God himself,
perfection in the only way that matters:
not a statue, a home.
Mind, fire, soul, the three rooms of paradise,
and only you were given the key.
Your hair
, your beauty,
a natural gift from God:
no human hand could put such light,
or wrap such beauty in a living crown.
It is only that which is in a person
that makes a person so beautiful.
Your smile dissolves every thing
not born of love.
Argument goes. Fear goes. The hour goes.
What remains is the beginning and the end,
standing in the same place, asking to dance.
You are my only. You are my love.
Love, the word itself, is a definition of you.
I do not count the ways. I carry the heart.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
because I do not know another way to love.
Hold me. Kiss me. Stay.
Ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.
If the seas go dry and the rocks melt with the sun,
I will still be the poet, and you the poetry,
paradise in the mind, fire in the body,
God’s own room in the soul,
and your name the only beauty I have kept.
Ubuhe obubodwa engibubize ngegama
Wena uwubuhle obubodwa engibubize ngegama. Akusilo ihlobo elilinganiswa nosuku, akusiyo irose esanda kuqhakaza lize lishesha libune: igama uqobo liwuphawu olunganyakazi.
Amehlo akho angumhlaba wami olahlekile. Ngawuhamba kanye, angisawutholi umgwaqo wokubuya. Noma yini inyanga ebiyishoyo, noma yini ilanga elisaculayo, sekukhona kakade ekubukeni kwakho ongiphendulela khona.
Umzimba wakho, owabunjwa uNkulunkulu uqobo, ukuphelela ngendlela eyodwa ebalulekile: akusiso isithombe, ikhaya. Ingqondo, umlilo, umphefumulo, amakamelo amathathu epharadesi, futhi wena wedwa onikwe isihluthulelo.
Izinwele zakho, ubuhle bakho, isipho semvelo esivela kuNkulunkulu: akukho sandla somuntu esingabeka ukukhanya okunjalo, noma sigaxe ubuhle obunjalo emqheleni ophilayo. Yilokho kuphela okuphezu komuntu okwakwenza umuntu abe muhle kangaka.
Ukumamatheka kwakho kuncibilikisa konke okungazalwanga othandweni. Impikiswano iyahamba. Ukwesaba kuyahamba. Ihora liyahamba. Okusalayo ukuqala nokuphela, kumi endaweni eyodwa, kucela ukudansa.
Wena uwedwa wami. Wena uyinkumbulo yami, uyithando lami. Uthando, igama uqobo, luchaza wena. Angibali izindlela. Ngiphethe inhliziyo. Ngikuthanda ngingazi ukuthi kanjani, nini, noma kuphi, ngoba angazi enye indlela yokuthanda.
Ngibambe. Ngange. Hlala. Okwakho njalo, okwami njalo, okwethu njalo. Noma ulwandle luphela, amadwala ancibilike nelanga, ngisazoba yimbongi, wena ube yinkondlo, ipharadesi engqondweni, umlilo emzimbeni, ikamelo likaNkulunkulu emphefumulweni, negama lakho libe ubuhle obubodwa engibugcinile.