And on the night when they both left,
Adam turned to his beloved Eve,
and cried four questions as he wept
while starring in the garden leaves.
Did I not name those far, old trees,
and the saplings which line the lanes,
and serenade stars in their routines,
with the most glorious of names?
Did I not grant each beast their term -
the fish, the birds, and insect throngs,
and call to the waters as they churned,
by the babble of their saccharine songs?
Did I not give five hundred names,
to mark the sun’s path upon the sky,
and sing to the moon as it waned,
five hundred words to bid it bye?
And did I not speak with Wind at night
in ten thousand angel tongues,
each with their myriad aural signs -
and in all of them a word for love?
Ten million words I have known,
Ten million feelings I have felt,
I’ve soared with birds up to their home,
and in the oceans I have knelt.
And I’ve heard songs, I’ve heard tones,
some of beauty, while others, gain.
And of all the words which I have known,
Not one of them for pain.
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As someone who studies languages a great deal, I am always struck about the richness of many languages. For example, the Arabs have 100 words for camel – the Hebrews, 100 words for God. Essentially, the more a culture and language group dwells on an object or idea, the more words they will have associated with this object. Conversely, the less a people group associates with an object, idea, or feeling, the fewer words their language will have. It can be very well said that languages are a function of their larger environment.
The other day I was driving home and thinking to myself of the Garden, and I began to think of the language of Adam and Eve in their greater context, their relationship with God. I began to realize their language must have been very rich in the vocabulary of love. And I realized, in a fit of whimsy and romanticism, that Adam and Eve had (and I settled on a number) 10,000 more words for love – words so beautiful as to be beyond words we have now — words which we will never know. Words fusing warmth and love. Words which fell in between the coolness of water and a kind thought.
And with this in mind, while waiting for the light on Baymeadows to change, I began to think on the other side of things. Namely, with little or no exposure to sadness, hate, pain, or any negative emotion, Adam and Eve would have been completely powerless to describe them after the Fall.
In short, that’s what this poem is about.
After recounting all the words he has known, Adam realizes in despair that he has entered into a new world which requires the loss of old words, and the adoption of new.
