The Metaphoric Eyes..

THE METAPHORIC EYES

Preface:

Shakespeare's Sonnet 132

Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
Knowing thy heart torments me with disdain,
Have put on black and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers in the even
Doth half that glory to the sober west
As those two mourning eyes become thy face.
O, let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.
Then will I swear beauty herself is black
And all they foul that thy complexion lack.

Today was one of those days when I open up my diary to write something, turn a few pages … find something interesting from my past and start reading and reliving those experiences again…  

...

It was the time when I cleared my 10^th boards and I was at my cousin’s place for my vacations. This is what my diary read that day...

…

27^th March 2010

….

During the first phase of my adolescence, I came across hundreds of songs portraying the hero dedicating songs and metaphorising the eyes of his lady love.

In the first few months, I was least interested in knowing the reason as to why the eyes of the hero’s love had been personified by the lyricist. But as the circumstances around me matured, I found my thoughts deepening.

There are two ways by which a writer can present his perception about an incident. One is by grasping the series of actual events from someone who faced it or was present in the vicinity. And the other is by self-experiencing the situation himself. The aim of the latter trail is not just recognition or appreciation, but to gain a feeling of self-fulfillment so that he can subside the growing restlessness within.

Coming back to my previous words; i.e. why only eyes, I thought perhaps it is considered to be the most vital organ among others; and what starts from the heart might be brought up by the eyes.

But none of my self-made theories regarding the metaphorising of the eye convinced me to an extent when I feel to write about it and thus I was still in a desperate search for the answer.

Then for years, this thought got buried under the layers of ignorance and a few more non convincing theories.

But one day, after years of search, I got both the explanation an also an opportunity to realize it myself.

….

It was a day whose date shouldn't bother me much, what would matter was the chance granted to be in that moment.

As I sit back now to retrace what I went through in that period, I remember a room, a bed, and a girl- a family friend she was.

She was sitting next to me, and with a sudden move we turned towards each other simultaneously, our eyes met and she asked me to play a game. The game was to look into each other’s eyes, the one who takes his eyes off the other’s, loses. Unlike the actual game, blinking was allowed, but not for a moment we could see anywhere except the other’s eye.

What I’d been desperately searching for years was now unknowingly being enforced upon me by the circumstances and in a flashing second, I muttered-“Yes I agree for the game.”

The game wasn't difficult but it was something new thus there wasn't any denial for the same from my side.

Going by my prejudices that eyes were just eyes, I, in the first few minutes found myself admiring the physicality of her eyes.

The eyelid was thinner than the lower skin folds; the cornea was marble white, aqueous humor normally transparent, brown pupil, dark iris and my image at the center.

…..

The time was growing and so was the zeal in me to look beyond the visible aspect… to look for something abstract. I found something deep... the depth of which was more than a million fathoms.

Two big eyes, which were brimming and overflowing because of the continuous staring…, were flooding my heart at regular intervals.

It is believed that the heart being the most important organ symbolizes the most valuable abstract feeling- LOVE and the eyes suffice its actions.

My eyes went deeper.

With each passing moment, the millions of glass walls which I never noticed between my eyes and the other person’s eyes were now breaking apart into pieces and my vision getting clear.

There was silence surrounding us both but still the eye-to-eye interaction was underway and developing.

……

It was already some 30 minutes complete I guess.

But what I was witnessing was the most beautiful thing I ever came across. I recapitulated that none of my previous success brought this level of satisfaction to me.

I was totally embraced by hypnotism, captivated and any alternative provided to me now reduced itself to a naive attempt to deter me from looking into her eyes. 

The other inmates of the room did commit some physical atrocities upon me but my patience and zeal fought all odds and none was successful in stopping me from looking into those beautiful eyes. My patience won and all gave up… my eyes did not.

Her eyes seemed to carry something divine. As per our initial positioning, the eye that I focused into was primarily her left and even after my hearty efforts of looking into the right one, I always resumed my attention back to her left eye.

And my heart made a demarcation that her left eye was more interactive than the right one. It was DEEP and DARK and REFLECTIVE.

……

The most beautiful moment that used to be for me was when her heart perhaps felt something and that sparked some signal which was then just in a millisecond transferred to her eyes; her pupil grew wider and before her lips conveyed, I knew she’d smile.

And what used to follow next was exactly what I saw in her eyes.

It was an awesome feeling and I had not seen such a brilliant smile in my life before this.

What were more magnificent were the moments that followed each smile of hers. The moment she smiled, within a fraction of second, calmness blinked, and the manner in which her lips retraced their path over her teeth, joining the two halves was even more beautiful.

I could not number her smiles but that confirmed me that even she found something interesting in my eyes and her level of participation was no less than mine.

I found this to closely resemble the constructive interference of frequencies that I studied in 11^th std physics. Each word I've studied then was turning true.

Our feelings were not time bound, thus we never cared what duration it has been.

After a long period of years, I found myself devoid of all tensions and my heart felt free again. It was pumping rejoice and rejuvenation and triumph throughout my soul. It was beating self-satisfaction.

...

Hypnotized we were when the inner quest started slowing down. I didn't wish to discontinue but perhaps my opportunity was now subsiding. And I found her taking the initiative to end it here. I prayed her to continue for five more minutes and as they ended… all I said was just not enough to hold her back.

Eyes lost their captivating power and the magic was over.

It took me sometime to resume to my real life. And the image of her left eye looking in to mine slowly transformed itself into the most cherished memory of mine. This incident locked itself safely in my memory cells. And now as I reflect back on the magical incident that occurred to me; I feel heaven.

I fear that next time I won’t be so keen to look into a girls eye as I have got my answer regarding the personification of eyes and its beauty had been realized.

But I have a hope…

“This time the question came to my mind and found its answer in this beautiful manner…so perhaps next time I get a question from my heart... and I would again have an opportunity to experience something more divine than this…”

And yes I did realize that eyes really lend a voice to the heart that pumps love throughout our soul…

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