Tonight is their wedding night. And she is beginning the night with a song that celebrates their blessed union, her desires for their first night, and her prescription for a lifetime of joy.
First, she praises the quality of their love and credits the one who brought them together.
Your heart is like a boat
A boat that is the color of Gold.
That our destinies now
Belong to one another
Is the work of God.
That is why she has agreed to marry him. Their love for another, cultivated by God, will be all that they need around them.
The beautiful Island of Love
Is a land empty of insincerity.
We shall go there where
There is only room
For our two hearts.
But that is the future. Tonight is their wedding night. She is finally allowed to express herself in a way that would not have been acceptable before. And she knows exactly what she wants to happen tonight with her new husband.
Up to now, even amorous gestures would have been a sin
But tonight, I am accompanied by my dowry.
I want, tonight until dawn, for us to share
Our secrets and needs.
From Nasrin's "Our Wedding" (Aroosiye Ma)
Tonight is Our Wedding Night
Wedding Night Advice
No doubt, to-be-married couples get a lot of advice from a variety of people. On the night of their wedding, this advice-giver has two pieces of advice for the couple. One is the admonition for the bride to finally act on her desires and kiss the groom right away. The second is perhaps less immediate.
Observing that the kind God has brought the two hearts together, the man says:
As life lasts only two days,
God forbid that you lose those two days
Over petty things.
Travel through the desert of love
For as long as you can.
The reference to life lasting only two days is a point heard in other Persian poems/songs. Evidently, the belief is that we are born today and tomorrow we die. Therefore we only have the present. Tonight.
The association of love and desert is also a popular one in Persian literature. It probably goes back, at least, to the story of Leili and Majnoon, an 800-year-old story of teen lovers not unlike Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. In the story, out of his love for Leili, Majnoon fled to the desert.
Incidentally, in urging her to kiss the groom right away, he points out:
The groom has already kissed you,
He has cut the bud of your lips,
For the pigeon of your heart,
He has dispersed seeds tonight.
From Manoochehr Sakhaee's Flower-Haired Bride (Gol Be Sar Aroos)
Labels: Bride, Desert, Groom, Kiss, Leili and Majnoon, Love, Manoochehr Sakhaee, Wedding