Valentine’s Day

The German poet and cultural historian, Rudolf Borchardt (1877-1945):

What they want, they cannot give.
And people only give what they have to.
So you give a kiss,
Wanting really to give life.
So you give a bouquet of flowers
Instead of a garden around the house.
You give a book as repayment
For the wisdom of the whole world.*

*Translated by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Epilogue, translated by Edward T. Oakes, S.J. (Ignatius Press, 2004), 80.