What Is Love?

Appropriately for Valentine's Day, the question is raised, "What is love?"

Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan would bob their heads to a disco beat and respond "Don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Oh-ooh" ("A Night at the Roxbury"! Now there's a Valentine's Day movie for you.)

St Paul would respond, ""Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not envious, or boastful, or arrogant, or rude." (I Corinthians 13, circa 40 AD recited at every wedding since.)

Robert Burns would wax poetic, "My love is like a red, red rose. That's newly sprung in June." (Roses are a lot cheaper in June than in February. Those thrifty Scots!)

Georges Bizet has the final (and enigmatic) definition. In the "Habanera", Bizet has Carmen sing, "L'amour est un oiseau." The Valentine's Weekend performance of "Carmen" at the Allentown Symphony last Saturday included projected supertitles for those of us whose French language skills are lacking. This supertitle read, "Love is a Bohemian child." (Perhaps this is the source of those single panel "Love Is" cartoons that were omnipresent back in the 80s. Those semi-nude and somewhat disturbing nymph-like kids were, in fact, Bohemian children and couldn't afford clothing)"

The "Habanera" continues, "Love is a Bohemian child. That no one can tame. And you can call him though it is. Quite in vain." Bohemian parents have wrestled with this dilemma for years! You can call for little Franz and Hans until your lungs bleed, but they won't come back for dinner until they're good and ready.

But how would a 19th century Spanish gypsy temptress know of the recalcitrance of Bohemian children? Why would Carmen use this as a symbol of love anyway? Is the Allentown Symphony pulling the audience's collective leg and mis-translating Bizet's lyrics? Is the Allentown Symphony secretly anti-Bohemian?

The Internet to the rescue! Wikipedia states that the Habanera's first line reads, "Love is a rebellious bird." That's not exactly a patient, kind, red, red rose, but it's certainly better than a Bohemian child as a symbol for Valentine's Day.

It's not until the third verse that Carmen sings, "L'amour est enfant de Boheme" translated by Wikipedia as "Love is a gypsy child." Aha! The Allentown Symphony is not anti-Bohemian, just pro-literal translation. Bizet has a bit more of the Valentine's spirit than we thought. Surely, a colorful dancing gypsy child is a more appropriate symbol of love than a Bohemian kid who doesn't want to come home for dinner.

I'll stick to St Paul's and Robert Burns' definitions of love anyway.