The funeral

المتوهمه :

هذا اللي حصلته I interpret it that he's kept what sounds like a rather large lock of hair as a lover's keepsake. Probably a woman's braid? I don't know how he got it; if they were lovers once and she left him, or if his affection was never returned. Anyway, he wants the lock of hair with him always, even after death, so he's saying "please bury it with me when I die." It sounds like she killed herself/died of an illness and left her braid to him, because he seems equally confused; "Whate'er she meant by 't, bury it with me." I love the part about it being his "outward soul" (i.e. she was his soul, and this piece of her represents her soul, which she has given to him); so now it will be a guardian of his body when his own soul goes to heaven. He describes her hairs as having grown "from a better brain" than his, and therefore can better protect his body than any part of himself. *sniffle. so sweet* And therefore he would assume that to be her reason for giving it to him, except that it gives him pain to see it. Yet he can't force himself to take it off because it's precious to him, so he feels like a prisoner to her memory, "manacled" by her hair which he wears on his arm. He muses that perhaps she gave it to him just to make him feel pain. But he says -- regardless, bury it with him, because it's like a holy relic of love, and he is "love's martyr" (sacrificing happiness for his unrequited love). **Holy relics in old churches were supposedly the remains of saints and early Christian martyrs, and were believed to possess the power of God to absolve the sins of pilgrims who visited them. Okay, a little messy, but that's the way I read it. The hair thing is very weird, even though people used to keep locks of hair -- a whole braid around his arm? Can anyone confirm or dispute that for me?

هذا اللي حصلته I interpret it that he's kept what sounds like a rather large lock of hair as a...