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Greatest literary love scenes
Perhaps I'm a hopeless romantic, but I think this might make for an interesting discussion. What do you think are the greatest moments of love in literature? What moves you and why?

I'll start with something which always moves me tremendously, in Fitzgerald's translation of the Odyssey -- love at second sight. The suitors are killed, order is restored, and Penelope and the man who claims to be the returned Odysseus face each other in the great silent hall. Penelope asks the nurse to arrange the bed for him outside their room, and Odysseus is overcome with rage: who could have moved the bed he built with his own hands into the trunk of a tree? And she knows that it is him.

"Do not rage at me, Odysseus!
No one ever matched your caution! Think
what difficulty the gods gave:  they denied us
life together in our prime and flowering years,
kept us from crossing into age together.
Forgive me, don't be angry! I could not
welcome you with love on sight! I armed myself
long ago agains the frauds of men,
imposters who might come...
But here and now, what sign could be so clear
as this of our own bed?
..."

Now from his breast into his eyes the ache
of longing mounted, and he wept at last,
his dear wife, clear and faithful, in his arms,
longed for
            as the sunwarmed earth is longed for by a swimmer
spent in rough water where his ship went down
under Poseidon's blows, gale winds and tons of sea.
Hi,

This is one of my favorite scenes, it's simply wonderful. I only have the text in french so I tried to make a translation as close as possible to the text. I hope it's good enough, any suggestion for the translation would be welcome as I'm not a native english speaker.
I hope you'll enjoy it.

Edmond Rostand : Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), acte V, scène 5.
[Cyrano, près de mourir et depuis toujours amoureux, vient rendre visite à Roxane, dont le jeune époux Christian est mort il y a des années à la guerre après lui avoir écrit une lettre bouleversante.] [Cyrano, about to die and since ever in love, comes to see Roxane, whose young husband died years ago at war after writing her a wonderful letter]
ROXANE, debout près de lui [standing next to her]
Chacun de nous a sa blessure : j'ai la mienne. [each of us has his own wound: I have mine]
Toujours vive, elle est là, cette blessure ancienne, [ Always strong, it is there, this old wound,]
Elle met la main sur sa poitrine. [She puts her hand on her chest]
Elle est là, sous la lettre au papier jaunissant [It is here, under the letter with paper getting old]
Où l'on peut voir encore des larmes et du sang ! [Where one can still see tears and blood!]
Le crépuscule commence à venir. [The twilight starts to come.]
CYRANO
Sa lettre !... N'aviez-vous pas dit qu'un jour, peut-être, [His letter!... Didn't you say that one day, maybe]
Vous me la feriez lire ? [You would let me read it?]
ROXANE
Ah ! vous voulez ?... Sa lettre ? [Ah! would you like to? ... His letter?]
CYRANO
Oui... Je veux... Aujourd'hui... [Yes... I do... Today...]
ROXANE, lui donnant le sachet pendu à son cou. [Giving him a bag hung to her neck]
Tenez ! [You may have it !]
CYRANO, le prenant [taking it]
Je peux ouvrir ? [May I open it?]
ROXANE
Ouvrez... lisez !... [Open... Read!...]
Elle revient à son métier, le replie, range ses laines. [She comes back to her loom, folds it, and puts her whool into order]
CYRANO, lisant [reading]
"Roxane, adieu, je vais mourir !..." [Roxane, goodbye, I'm going to die !...]
ROXANE, s'arrêtant, étonnée [Stops, surprised]
Tout haut ? [out loud?]
CYRANO, lisant [reading]
"C'est pour ce soir, je crois, ma bien-aimée ! [It's for tonight, I think, my sweet love !]
"J'ai l'âme lourde encor d'amour inexprimée, [I still  have my mind heavy of unexpressed love]
"Et je meurs ! jamais plus, jamais mes yeux grisés, [And I'm dying! Never again, never my admiring eyes,]
"Mes regards dont c'était..." [My looks for which...]
ROXANE
Comme vous la lisez, [How you are reading it,]
Sa lettre ! [His letter !]
CYRANO, continuant [continuing]
"...dont c'était les frémissantes fêtes, [... it was the trembling feast,]
"Ne baiseront au vol les gestes que vous faites [Will not kiss on the fly the movements you do]
"J'en revois un petit qui vous est familier [I can see now a litle one that I know yours]
"Pour toucher votre front, et je voudrais crier..." [To touch your forehead, and I would like to shout...]
ROXANE, troublée [perturbed]
Comme vous la lisez, - cette lettre ! [How you read it, -this letter]
La nuit vient insensiblement. [The night is falling]
CYRANO
"Et je crie [And I shout]
"Adieu !..." [Goodbye !...]
ROXANE
Vous la lisez... [How you read it...]
CYRANO
"Ma chère, ma chérie, [My dear, my beloved, ]
"Mon trésor..." [my treasure...]
ROXANE, rêveuse [dreaming]
D'une voix... [With a voice..]
CYRANO
"Mon amour..." [My love...]
ROXANE
D'une voix... [With a voice..]
Elle tressaille. [she quivers]
Mais... que je n'entends pas pour la première fois ! [But... that I do not hear for the first time!]
Elle s'approche tout doucement, sans qu'il s'en aperçoive, passe derrière le fauteuil se penche sans bruit, regarde la lettre. - L'ombre augmente. [She comes close slowly, without him noticing, goes behind his chair, and without a sound looks at the letter . - Darkness increases.]
CYRANO
"Mon coeur ne vous quitta jamais une seconde, [my heart never left you one second]
"Et je suis et serai jusque dans l'autre monde [and I am and will be even after death]
"Celui qui vous aima sans mesure, celui..." [The one that loved you without limits, the one...]
ROXANE, lui posant la main sur l'épaule [Putting her hand on his shoulder]
"Comment pouvez-vous lire à présent ? Il fait nuit. [How can you read now? It's dark.]
Il tressaille, se retourne, la voit là tout près, fait un geste d'effroi, baisse la tête. Un long silence. Puis, dans l'ombre complètement venue, elle dit avec lenteur, joignant les mains [He quivers, turns around, sees her, makes a frightened gesture, put his head down. A long silence. Then, in the shadow now complete, she says slowly, joining her hands]
"Et pendant quatorze ans, il a joué ce rôle [And for 14 years, he played this role]
D'être le vieil ami qui vient pour être drôle ! [To be the friend who comes to be funny]
CYRANO
Roxane ! [Roxane !]
ROXANE
C'était vous. [it was you]
CYRANO
Non, non, Roxane, non ! [No, no, Roxane, no !]
ROXANE
J'aurais dû deviner quand il disait mon nom ! [I should have guessed when he was saying my name !]
CYRANO
Non ! ce n'était pas moi ! [no it was not me !]
ROXANE
C'était vous ! [it was you ! ]
CYRANO
Je vous jure... [I swear...]
ROXANE
J'aperçois toute la généreuse imposture [I perceive all the generous imposture]
Les lettres, c'était vous... [the letters, it was you...]
CYRANO
Non ! [No !]
ROXANE
Les mots chers et fous, [the sweet and crazy words,]
C'était vous... [it was you...]
CYRANO
Non ! [No !]
ROXANE
La voix dans la nuit, c'était vous. [The voice in the night, it was you]
CYRANO
Je vous jure que non ! [I swear it wasn't]
ROXANE
L'âme, c'était la vôtre ! [The soul, it was yours !]
CYRANO
Je ne vous aimais pas. [I didn't love you]
ROXANE
Vous m'aimiez ! [you loved me !]
CYRANO, se débattant [Struggling]
C'était l'autre ! [it was the other one ! ]
ROXANE
Vous m'aimiez ! [you loved me !]
CYRANO, d'une voix qui faiblit [with a voice getting lower]
Non ! [No !]
ROXANE
Déjà vous le dites plus bas ! [Already you don't say it so loud anymore !]

In response to Claire
Claire...
Your selection forced me back to reading the whole play in French again...Larousse dictionary in hand.  Worth it.  Read it in college decades ago, and forgot...until I read your selection...how very good it is.

Thank you

In response to Bob Simon
Claire,
Thank you for posting this.  I cannot read it without becoming a total mess.  There is no other story which is so similar to my life.

Merci beaucoup pour le beaux post,
Kathy
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This topic has the following siblings:

Greatest literary love scenes - Greatest literary breakups

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Latest Post: April 14, 2012 at 6:54 AM
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