i do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. i love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. i love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers. thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body. i love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. i love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride. so i love you because i know no other way. this feeling that is so pure that even if the distance erodes the hours of the day and falls the night without stars, i'll love you still.