Minutes only

A few years ago, Sandy and I were visiting my Great-Aunt Betty in Nebraska. Hanging on the bedroom wall was this quote (I believe it was in needlework, but my memory is fuzzy):

Bewahret einander vor Herzeleid, 
kurz ist die Zeit die Ihr zusammen seid.
Denn ob auch viele Jahre Euch vereinen,
einst werden wie Minuten sie Euch scheinen

If I recall correctly, it was given to my great-grandparents when they married. We asked about it, and Betty showed us the translation someone had written for the English-speakers in the family:

Preserve each other from heart sorrow.
Short is the time you are together.
And even if many years will unite you,
Once they will seem to you as minutes only.

Sandy with Betty in November 2005

We thought it was beautiful, if clumsily translated, and I scribbled both the original and the translation into my notebook. It ended up in one of the countless piles of paper in the house, and eventually found its way into a box of items to be filed. (Often, that box is actually a catch-all for things I don't want to lose but haven't a clue what to do with.) Today, I was sifting through that box and came across it.

Sandy didn't have metastatic cancer when we first saw the quote, and I believe I'd already come through heart surgery. We thought our future would be smoother, but we'd known the fear of losing each other. The words "short is the time you are together" felt very poignant then. This morning I was caught on the thought that we had only 15 and a half years together, and that I could well have to live another 50 without her. When I came across the quote today, I felt its truth, even as I was taken back in time, standing in that bedroom with Sandy and Betty, feeling Sandy's arm tighten around my waist.

**I've looked up the original German online and discovered that it's apparently an old quote, one that has more recently found its way into a rock song. I found some more graceful translations (heartache instead of "heart sorrow," though I find the latter charming), but haven't learned the origin of the quote itself.