Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin Lowther and.
Speaker 2: I'm Alice Irasari. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
Speaker 2: It is easier for people to understand no matter where
Speaker 2: in the world they live.
Speaker 1: It is nineteen sixty nine and a young Stephen Stills
Speaker 1: has a broken heart. The woman that he loves is
Speaker 1: leaving him for someone else. He feels hopeless trying to
Speaker 1: understand how the person he wants so much could be
Speaker 1: gone from his life. He is just a poor musician.
Speaker 1: He has little to offer her, nothing to bring her back,
Speaker 1: so he does the only thing he knows how to do.
Speaker 1: Stephen Still's writes a song.
Speaker 2: The song Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, did not bring back
Speaker 2: the woman that he loved. Stills was not the first
Speaker 2: person to write a love song. Love songs like his
Speaker 2: have been sung for thousands of years, expressing everything from
Speaker 2: the sadness of a lost love to the joy of
Speaker 2: new desire. These songs show that this longing for another
Speaker 2: is not new. Today's Spotlight is on the world history
Speaker 2: of love songs and poetry.
Speaker 1: People have created love songs since before the invention of
Speaker 1: writing songs. Words and stories were very important to ancient cultures.
Speaker 1: These cultures expressed themselves freely and openly. Some experts argue
Speaker 1: that these songs did not qualify as love songs. C. F.
Speaker 1: Lewis was an English writer. He once wrote that love
Speaker 1: poetry was less than a thousand years old. He suspected
Speaker 1: that love as we know it was invented by French
Speaker 1: poets in the eleventh century BCEE.
Speaker 2: But love was still an emotion that ancient humans felt.
Speaker 2: They may not have expressed their words in the same
Speaker 2: way that we do today, the feelings that brought them
Speaker 2: to sing would have been the same. Tim Hancock is
Speaker 2: a literature expert. In his story called The Chemistry of
Speaker 2: Love Poetry, he argues that this is because love is
Speaker 2: a physical experience ingrained in human nature.
Speaker 3: Poets recognize that love is a physical as well as
Speaker 3: a mental experience. This agrees with our growing on understanding
Speaker 3: of love as a universal drive. Hunger hurts the stomach,
Speaker 3: the need for warmth causes us to shiver. Love shakes
Speaker 3: the heart.
Speaker 1: The oldest love poetry in the world seems to agree
Speaker 1: with Hancock's ideas. This poem, the Love Song of Shoe Sween,
Speaker 1: was written in two thousand Bce in Sumeria. This ancient
Speaker 1: kingdom existed three thousand years ago in present day Iraq.
Speaker 1: But the things the love song's writer speaks about are
Speaker 1: just like those a woman might feel today. She compares
Speaker 1: the one she desires to a lion, a large, strong cat.
Speaker 1: She sings, you.
Speaker 4: Have captivated me of my own free will. I will
Speaker 4: come to you, man. Let let me flee with you
Speaker 4: into the bedroom.
Speaker 2: The love song of Shoe Swen's author is very explicit
Speaker 2: about her physical desire for the one she loves. The
Speaker 2: words she uses are very simple. She does not have
Speaker 2: the art of a modern poet, but her openness shows
Speaker 2: that love of this kind existed long before the eleventh century.
Speaker 1: The emotions behind all love poetry and songs may be
Speaker 1: the same, but the way that people write depends highly
Speaker 1: on the place and time. Ancient Chinese love poetry has
Speaker 1: a different quality than the ancient Sumerian variety. Shu Swen's
Speaker 1: speaker tells her lover exactly what she wants from him,
Speaker 1: but Chinese poetry is not so direct. Dou Fu was
Speaker 1: one of the greatest Chinese poets. His poem at the
Speaker 1: World's End is an amazing example.
Speaker 5: Cold is the wind that rises over this remote place,
Speaker 5: old friend, tell me, when will a wild bird goose
Speaker 5: reach me here? From the rivers and lakes where the
Speaker 5: autumn waters are overflowing.
Speaker 2: At first glance, Dofu's poem does not seem to be
Speaker 2: about love at all, but do Fu was writing about
Speaker 2: love indirectly. In Chinese love poetry, some animals or events
Speaker 2: are symbolic. They have two or more meanings that the
Speaker 2: reader must understand. A wild goose is a kind of
Speaker 2: large bird. These birds mate for life, just like many
Speaker 2: humans do. So geese are symbolic of marriage, of long
Speaker 2: life together. When Dofu asks if a wild goose will
Speaker 2: reach him, he is asking about companionship. He is in
Speaker 2: a place that is cold and lonely. He wishes for
Speaker 2: love to fly to him like a bird.
Speaker 1: Many love poems are meant to be read, but most
Speaker 1: throughout history was spoken or sung. William Shakespeare was one
Speaker 1: of the greatest poets in the history of the English language.
Speaker 1: His poems were written to be spoken.
Speaker 2: One of Shakespeare's most famous poems is Sonnet eighteen. In
Speaker 2: this poem, Shakespeare compares his love to a day in summer.
Speaker 2: He decides that while he likes summer. He likes the
Speaker 2: person he loves better. She is just as beautiful and
Speaker 2: just as pleasant. But unlike a summer day, she does
Speaker 2: not change to him. She will never fade.
Speaker 1: Shakespeare's son it has a different quality to it than
Speaker 1: do Fu or Shoe sweens. Shakespeare's poem is very technical.
Speaker 1: It does not express the same desire as the ancient
Speaker 1: Sumerian poet. It does not have the same longing expressed
Speaker 1: in At the World's End. But Shakespeare's goal is the same.
Speaker 1: There is a person that he loves so much that
Speaker 1: he feels the need to speak to her. But this
Speaker 1: feeling is so big that he cannot speak to her
Speaker 1: in normal language. He must make her a thing of
Speaker 1: beauty that shows her own.
Speaker 2: Today. Love poetry is as different as the people on earth.
Speaker 2: Some people write using traditional forms. Some people write clearly
Speaker 2: what they feel and what they think. Others feel that
Speaker 2: words are not enough, They make music that expresses their desire.
Speaker 1: Experts do not always agree what purpose love poetry serves.
Speaker 1: Why have people developed this form of expression? What advantages
Speaker 1: does poetry give? These are all fair questions, But for
Speaker 1: those of us in the thick of love, this does
Speaker 1: not seem to matter. Love poetry exists because there are
Speaker 1: some feelings that are too big to leave hidden. But
Speaker 1: these feelings are also so overwhelming that one word does
Speaker 1: not do them justice. It has been that way longer
Speaker 1: than we can understand. Love is one experience that unites
Speaker 1: us from now to the beginning of time.
Speaker 2: Have you ever been in love? Did you feel the
Speaker 2: need to write about it? How did you express yourself?
Speaker 2: You can leave a comment on our website at www
Speaker 2: dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
Speaker 2: on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Blue Sky, and x. You can
Speaker 2: also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or
Speaker 2: Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer
Speaker 1: was Michyo Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted
Speaker 1: for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is
Speaker 1: called Expressing Your Love.
Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 2: Spotlight program. Goodbye, h