Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s speaker begs a lover to kiss him with fiery intensity while there is still time. These kisses are imagined as seeds that will bloom into lotus and shephali flowers after death. Even if he dies alone in some far-off place, those petals might comfort other lost souls. His own buried soul, he says, will grow like a weeping willow on a shore of sorrow, bending to shelter lovers who meet only briefly. The mood is urgent and dreamlike—fear of death and loneliness mingles with a wish to turn love into something lasting and gentle. The speaker feels that love is brief, so he asks his beloved to press all hope, desire, and devotion into each kiss, hoping their present passion can become an image of eternal spring.
Kiss, My Love, Kiss — Summary
Kiss, my love, kiss My burning, breaking being; So when cold death Will put out the light In some wilderness Of far forsaken life Might each kiss blossom Into a lotus and a Shephali. And in the desolate hours Of loneliness of traveling In the dusk of despair One petal of these Will cheer the vagrant souls That tread the pathway Of love's forsaking. Or, when Death will sow This Soul of mine On the lake-shore of sorrow, Like a weeping willow I will spring, And with my green tresses And bending body Shall shelter secrecy-seeking lovers That love for an hour, As our twin hearts today. Kiss then, with kisses of flame; Touch me with rosy caresses; Bury this, my hope, my dream, And thy all-conquering love of me; So the kiss-flowers may each be a dream! May my willow be the vision of Eternal Spring.