John Lennon sings, "All you need is love/Love is all you need" and Allen Ginsberg agrees in his own way: "The weight of the world is love." Why we are alone sometimes, and why we are dissatisfied at other times is because love is weighing. It burdens us in dreams, and in thoughts when we are awake. If we do not have love, we are restless. We can rest and sleep only once we have love. In that, it is indeed the final wish. It is the ultimate desire -- the penultimate weight. "I wanted/I always wanted/I always wanted" repeats Allen Ginsberg in the end of the poem to emphasize this ultimate desire. The soul comes back into the body and is fulfilled with love; until then it keeps wandering. Only once it comes back home, it is satisfied.
It reminds me of Kabir's Wedding Song:
Sing O Soul, O soul you sing!
Sing freely sing, O fondly sing!
Sing sated sweet savory song
Sing I hear my wedding bells ring!
More: Dulhani
Song
- Allen Ginsberg
The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction
the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.
Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human—
looks out of the heart
burning with purity—
for the burden of life
is love,
but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.
No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love—
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
—cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:
the weight is too heavy
—must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.
The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye—
yes, yes,
that’s what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.
Singing oneness!
