Ancient Wisdom Atlas

Motif

Beloved as perilous and unattainable goal

beloved_as_perilous_and_unattainable_goal

A motif of the Sacred Love and Longing family. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.

1 occurrences

1 traditions


persian

  • The Persian Literature, Volume 2, The Gulistan XVIII / XXVII / CHAPTER IV / CHAPTER V; lines 2770-2877 confidence: medium

    A lover's object of desire is described as "a frightful precipice and overwhelming whirlpool"; friends admonish him, but he says a lover should perish if unable to reach the mistress and may die at her threshold.

    The object of desire is described as not capturable or consumable but as a frightful precipice and overwhelming whirlpool, while the lover imagines attempting passage to the mistress even at the cost of life.

    read in the book