Traditional Chinese Wedding Vows

<Bride-Groom's name>, you are willing to marry < Bride-Groom's name> as your <husband-wife>, in sacred marriage together for life?
Whether <he-she> has sickness or health, poverty or wealth, beauty or is plain, in good times and in bad, you are willing to love her, to comfort her, to respect her, and protect <him-her>?
And willing to be forever loyal to <him-her>?

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Married Love

You and I
Have so much love
That it
Burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
You are in my clay.
In life we share a single quilt.
In death we will share one bed.

Kuan Tao-Sheng
(1262-1319)

Translated from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung

 

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When Two People Are at One - I Ching

When two people are at one
in their inmost hearts
They shatter even the strength of iron
or of bronze
And when two people understand each other
in their inmost hearts
Their words are sweet and strong
like the fragrance of orchids.

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Oath of Friendship - Anon.,China 1st Century B.C.

I want to be your friend

For ever and ever without break or decay.

When the hills are all flat

And the rivers are all dry,

When it lightens and thunders in winter,

When it rains and snows in summer,

When Heaven and Earth mingle
Not 'til then will I part from you.

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Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Without words, without even understanding,

lovers find each other.

... The moment of finding is always a surprise,

like meeting an old friend never before known.

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Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Explore and discover that which is within.

When we find ourselves, we are more easily found by others.

 

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A Chinese Wedding Poem

I want to be your friend forever and ever
When the hills are all flat
And the rivers run dry
When the trees blossom in winter
And the snow falls in summer,
When heaven and earth mix
Not till then will part from you.

 

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Prayer for Peace - Lao-Tse (Taoist)

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

 

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Hindu Marriage Poem

You have become mine forever.
Yes, we have become partners.
I have become yours.
Hereafter, I cannot live without you.
Do not live without me.
Let us share the joys.
We are word and meaning, unite.
You are thought and I am sound.

May the nights be honey-sweet for us.
May the mornings be honey-sweet for us.
May the plants be honey-sweet for us.
May the earth be honey-sweet for us.

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Plucking the Rushes - 4th Century Chinese Love Poem

A boy and a girl are sent to gather rushes for thatching
Green rushes with red shoots,
Long leaves bending to the wind –
You and I in the same boat
Plucking rushes at the Five Lakes.

We started at dawn from the orchid-island:
We rested under elms till noon.
You and I plucking rushes
Had not plucked a handful when night came!

 

 

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