Love unifies us all, a reminder of the bonds we share. Here are two love poems, separated by time and space, each offering meditations on this most intense and complex of human emotions.

A Lover’s Longing (Japanese, 10th century AD)

Someone like you
may never know
how long a night can be,
spent pining for a loved one
till it breaks at dawn.

The poet Michitsuna no Haha (c. 935–995) was a Heian period writer and a member of the 36 Medieval Poetry Immortals. This poem is taken from the classic collection, One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each (English edition by Penguin Random House, 2018).

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Lovers in Harmony (from the Song of Solomon, 10th century BC)

You have captured my heart,
my own, my bride.
You have captured my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one coil of your necklace.
How sweet is your love,
my own, my bride!
How much more delightful your love than wine,
your ointments more fragrant
than any spice!
Sweetness drops from your lips, O bride,
honey and milk
are under your tongue;
and the scent of your robes
is like the scent of Lebanon.

From The Song of Songs by King Solomon, translated from the Hebrew by the Jewish Publication Society. The Song of Songs or Songs of Solomon is unique within the Hebrew Bible. A long poem, it shows no interest in the Old Testament law of the Covenant of God with Israel. Instead, it celebrates sexual love, expressed in the voices of two loves praising each other and yearning for each other. The two are in the harmony of being in deep love, each desiring the other and rejoicing in intimacy. In the background of this long poem, the women of Jerusalem form a chorus to the lovers, like an audience participating and affirming the lover’s erotic encounters. The book in its present form postdates the Babylonian Exile (5th century BC onward), but the poems that it preserves date from about the 10th century BC, the period of King David’s reign.