My love for thee shall aye endure
As now, most perfect and most pure;

It brooks no increase, no decline,

Since it's complete, and wholly thine.

.

I cannot any cause discover,

Except my will, to be thy lover,

And boldly challenge any man

To name another, if he can.

.

For sure, when anything we see

Of its own self sole cause to be,

That being, being of that thing,

Lives ever undiminishing

.

But when we find its origin

Is other than the thing it's in,

Our losing that which made it be

Annihilates it instantly.

---- Abu Muhammad Ali Ibn Hazam

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Image: Aitutaki Lagoon at Sunrise, Cook Islands