Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic.

Perché il veramente innamorato chiede la continuità, la vitalità dei rapporti? Perché la vita è dolore e l'amore goduto è un anestetico, e chi vorrebbe svegliarsi a metà operazione?
Cesare Pavese

Why does the person who is truly in love seeks the continuity, the lifelong duration of relationships? Because life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic, and who wants to wake up in the middle of an operation?
Cesare Pavese
[English translation by Spiros Doikas]

Γιατί ο αληθινά ερωτευμένος ζητά τη συνέχεια, το ισόβιο των σχέσεων; Διότι η ζωή είναι οδύνη και η απόλαυση του έρωτα είναι αναισθητικό, και ποιος θέλει να ξυπνήσει στη μέση μιας εγχείρησης;
Τσέζαρε Παβάζε
[Μετάφραση: Σπύρος Δόικας]

Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet

Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet

Various translations:

Let those love now, who've never loved,
Let those who've loved, love yet again.

Ας αγαπήσουν τώρα εκείνοι που δεν αγάπησαν ποτέ
Και εκείνοι που αγάπησαν, ας αγαπήσουν ξανά.

Tomorrow may he love who has never loved, whoever has loved, may he love tomorrow

From PervigiliumVeneris

Cras amet qui nunquam amavit quique amavit cras amet.
Ver novum, ver iam canorum, vere natus orbis est,
Vere concordant amores, vere nubunt alites,
Cras amorum copulatrix inter umbras arborum
Implicat casas virentes de flagello myrteo
Cras Dione iura dicit fulta sublimi throno.

Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet.

Tunc cruore de superno spumeo pontus globo
Caerulas inter catervas, inter et bipedes equos
Fecit undantem Dionem de maritis imbribus.

Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet.

Ipsa gemmis purpurantem pingit annum floridis,
Ipsa surgentes papillas de Favoni spiritu
Urget in toros tepentes, ipsa roris lucidi,
Noctis aura quem relinquit, spargit umentis aquas.
En micant lacrimae trementes de caduco pondere:
Gutta praeceps orbe parvo sustinet casus suos.

En pudorem florulentae prodiderunt purpurae:
Umor ille, quem serena astra rorant noctibus.
Mane virgineas papillas solvit umenti peplo.
Ipsa jussit mane ut udae virgines nubant rosae:
Facta Cypridis de cruore deque Amoris osculis
Deque gemmis deque flabris deque solis purpuris
Cras ruborem, qui latebat veste tectus ignea,
Unico marita voto non pudebit solvere.

Cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet

Ipsa nymphas diva luco jussit ire myrteo:
It puer comes puellis: nec tamen credi potest
Esse Amorem feriatum si sagittas vexerit.
Ite, nymphae; posuit arma, feriatus est Amor

Cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet

Iussus est inermis ire, nudus ire iussus est,
Neu quid arcu, neu sagitta, neu quid igne laederet.
Sed tamen, nymphae, cavete, quod Cupido pulcher est:
Totus est in armis idem, quando nudus est Amor.

Cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet

Conpari Venus pudore mittit ad te virgines.
Una res est quam rogamus: cede, virgo DeIia
Ut nemus sit incruentum de ferinis stragibus.
Ipsa vellet te rogare, si pudicam flecteret,
Ipsa vellet ut venires, si deceret virginem.
Iam tribus choros videres feriantis noctibus
Congreges inter catervas ire per saltus tuos,
Floreas inter coronas, myrteas inter casas.
Nec Ceres, nec Bacchus absunt, nec poetarum deus.
Detinenter tota nox est perviglanda canticis:
Regnet in silvis Dione: tu recede, Delia.

Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet.

Iussit Hyblaeis tribunal stare diva floribus;
Praeses ipsa iura dicet, adsidebunt Gratiae.
Hybla, totus funde flores, quidquid annus adtulit
Hybla, florum sume vestem, quantus Aetnae campus est
Ruris hic erunt puellae vel puellae fontium
Quaeque sllvas, quaeque lucos, quaeque montes incolunt
Iussit omnes adsidere pueri mater alitis,
Iussit et nudo puellas nil Amori credere

Cras amet qui numqnam amavit quique amavit cras amet.

Et recentibus virentes ducat umbras floribus.
Cras erit quom primus Aether copulavit nuptias,
Et pater totis crearet vernis annum nubibus:
In sinum maritus imber fluxit almae coniugis,
Unde fetus mixtus omnis aleret magno corpore.
Ipsa venas atque mentem permeanti spiritu
Intus occultis gubernat procreatrix viribus,
Perque caelum perque terras perque pontum subditum
Pervium sui tenorem seminali tramite
Inbuit iussitque mundumque nosse nascendi vias.

Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet

Ipsa Troianos nepotes in Latinos transtulit:
Ipsa Laurentem puellam coniugem nato dedit,
Unde Ramnes et Quirites proque prole posterum
Romuli matrem crearet et nepotem Caesarem;
Moxque Marti de sacello dat pudicam virginem
Romuleas ipsa fecit cum Sabinis nuptias

Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet.

Rura fecundat voluptas, rura Venerem sentiunt;
Ipse Amor, puer Dionae, rure natus dicitur.
Hunc, ager cum parturiret, ipsa suscepit sinu:
Ipsa florum delicatis educavit osculis.

Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras [amet.

Ecce iam subter genestas explicant agni latus,
Quisque tutus quo tenetur coniugali foedere.
Subter umbras cum maritis ecce balantum greges:
Et canoras non tacere diva iussit alites.
Iam loquaces ore rauco stagna cygni perstrepunt:
Adsonat Terei puella subter umbram populi,
Ut putes motus amoris ore dici musico,
Et neges queri sororem de marito barbaro.

Illa cantat, nos tacemus. Quando ver venit meum,
Quando fiam uti chelidon, ut tacere desinam?
Perdidi Musam tacendo, nec me Phoebus respicit.
Sic Amyclas, cum tacerent, perdidit silentium.
Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet.

Love as nurturing spiritual growth

Love is not a feeling. Love is an action, an activity... Genuine love implies commitment and the exercise of wisdom... love as the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth... true love is an act of will that often transcends ephemeral feelings of love or cathexis, it is correct to say, 'Love is as love does'.

Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled (Arrow New-Age)

I know that somewhere in the Universe exists my perfect soulmate

I know that somewhere in the Universe exists my perfect soulmate but looking for her is much more difficult than just staying at home and ordering another pizza.
Alf Whit

When love beckons to you, follow him

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions
May wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
As the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you
So shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth
So is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses
Your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and
Shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Let us love for a while, for a year or so, you and me

At any rate, let us love for a while, for a year or so, you and me. That's a form of divine drunkenness that we can all try.
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Each man kills the thing he loves

Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
from all let this be heard.
Some does it with a bitter look,
some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss
the brave man with the sword

Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,
Some sell, and others buy;
Some do the deed with many tears,
And some without a sigh:
For each man kills the thing he loves,
Yet each man does not die.

Oscar Wilde, Ballad of Reading Gaol

What will survive of us is love

What will survive of us is love.
Philip Larkin, An Arundel Tomb

Unconditional love

I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heals our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to our lives. It is our connection to God and to each other.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

They must be felt with the heart

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller