The now-extinct Tocharian languages were spoken in western China in the latter half of the first millennium CE. We have only fragments of written texts in these languages, but here’s part of a Tocharian love poem that conveys emotions that echo across the centuries. It appears in Laura Spinney’s new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (Bookshop|Amazon). Here’s the whole poem:
Earlier there was no person dearer to me than you,
and later too there was none dearer.
The love for you, delight in you is breath together with life.
This should not change for life.
Thus I thought: with the one beloved will I live well lifelong without deceit without pretense.
The god Karman alone knew this my thought.
Therefore, he caused dissension and tore from me the heart that belonged to you.
He led you away, separated me and had me partake of all sorrows.
The joy I had in you he took away from me.
And in Tocharian:
Ma ni cisa nos somo nem wnolme lare taka,
ma ra postam cisa lare mäsketär-n.
Cisse laraumne cisse artanye pelke kalttarr solämpa sse,
ma te stalle sol wärnai.
Taiysu pälskanoym: sanai saryompa sayau karttses saulu wärnai snai tserekwa snai nane.
Yamornikte se cau ni palskane sarsa, tusa ysaly ersate, cisy aras ni sälkate.
Waya ci lauke, tsyara nis wetke, lykautka-n pake po läklentas, cise tsarwo sampate-n.
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