Wedding Vows

Here, at last, are our Wedding Vows to each other -- all the way from Budapest, Hungary!

Melissa's Vows
Permit me voyage, love, into your hands.
I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street.

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the good of the
earth and sun.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so

hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.

I, being born a woman and distressed,

will strive
To love you in the old high way of love,

a love as eternal and mute as matter.

I desire my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.

And for what, except for you, do I feel love?
Do I press the most extremest book of the wisest man
Close to me, hidden in me day and night?

Hands I have taken, face I have kissed,

The vivid transparence that you bring is peace.

Ah, love, let us be true to one another!

Come to me now: loose me from hard
care and all my heart longs
to accomplish, accomplish. You
be my ally.

So we shall
Be one, and one another's all.

Let us love nobly, and live, and add again
years and years unto years,

That when we live no more we may live ever.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.



Andy's Vows

Witness now this trust!

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street . . .

I'll love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by the sun and candle-light.

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I , being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

You have nothing and you want to give me a world.
I owe you a world.

Love is the greatest mercy,
The fiery event of every day in endless
Endless assent.
How brilliant it is, how rare!

Bind us in time, O seasons clear, and awe,
And let us walk through time with equal pride,
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
Over the greatness of such space
Steps must be gentle.

Love me, companion. Don't forsake me.
Treat me as you should treat me.
I will help you to approach
If you approach,
And to keep away
If you keep away.
I love you as you are.
After each sorrow joy comes back again,
A freshness ever the same.
You fill everything.

All love goes by as water to the sea,
All love goes by.
In you the rivers sing and my soul flees in them
As you desire, and you send it where you will.
How slow life seems;
Where whenas death shall all the world subdew
Our love shall live, and later life renew.

Let us go then, you and I,
Into that world
Where left is always right,
Where the shadows are really the body,
Where we stay awake all night,
Where the heavens are shallow as the sea
Is now deep, and you love me.
Permit me voyage, love, into your hands.