Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, heaven's waiting down on the tracks"

from: Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road

These lines both represents a universal idea of "the two of us is all we need and we can take on the entire world together" as well as the very American romanticism of the open road, the car trip that "take us anywhere" which transcends romantic love to themes of friendship and comradery from Butch and Sundance to Thelma and Louise and beyond. These ideas can be wildly found in western popular culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2X0Gf9jfz8 

Shall I write it in a letter?
Shall I try to get it down?
Oh, you fill my head with pieces
Of a song I can't get out

Can I be close to you?

Can I take it to a morning
Where the fields are painted gold
And the trees are filled with memories
Of the feelings never told?

When the evening pulls the sun down
And the day is almost through
Oh, the whole world it is sleeping
But my world is you

Can I be close to you?
 2011

Romantic love in the 21st century is a social construct made of conevntions we meet within the media, culture and community. In my opinion, romantic love is a well constructed myth we consume from western media that follows specific conventions:
A consuming and overwhelming feeling of warmth and happiness towards somwone. "...fill my lungs with sweetness \ and you fill my head with you.."
full dedication to one person (monogamy). "But my world is you"
The need to make soneone happy and cared for. "Can i take you in the morning / Where the field are painted gold?"
Somtheing irrational and uncontrollable. "...you fill my head with pieces/ Of a song I can't get out"
The extreme need to be emotionally and physically close to someone. "Can i be close to you?"

P.s:  if you wouls like to see a different non conventional approach to romantic love, i would reccomend:
CAER - Written & Directed by Robert Kouba
https://amberliquidambar.tumblr.com/post/143392892949/in-solitude-you-found-me-formless-like-a-memory

Yael Atlas

I still get lost in the night
 Lost in my dreaming time
Memories back from fine
Back to get all my time
I still get lost, what's mine?
Memories back from time
All my thoughts on at night
All my life's on the line
I still get lost in the night
Memories back from mine
'Member we had one night?
'Member we had the night?
I still get lost sometimes
Memories haunting mind
'Member we had the mind?
'Member we had the mind?
I'm gon' get lost sometimes
'Member we cry sometimes
I went through fine, oh, fine
When you was mine, all mine
Somehow we got to meet
Now I keep to darker streets
F****d up without the love
Parker without the cleats
F****d up and on repeat
Above the night I beat
I done went back to sleep
What a new sight to see
What do you write for me?
What will fit right for me?
I did what's right for me
I fought from fighting me
Well, I would like to see
I still get lost sometimes
Far from my state of mind
Stay on the vibes alright
When do I cross your mind?
When do you see my pride?
I've got a Pablo shine
Pride is the number line
Okay, well, never mind
Okay, then, never mind
Do I still cross your mind?
If not, then, never mind
If not, then, never mind

 

This song from Kanye West's "Donda 2" portrays some of the conventions of love in our time. Kanye focuses on the memories that he shares with his ex-wife. The reminiscence of former relationship is, in my opinion, a part of what love is. As we discussed, love is a complex emotion – it can be represented by the fear for the wellbeing of your partner, of the anxiety of them leaving you. In this song, Kanye shows that although love can be .complicated for some, for him it is simple

and it tells me to give you my regards, Layla

the love's breezes is not sweet

unless it sings for Layla "

This is indeed the nature of a lover

 

Come on let's drink and sing for me

Mentioning "Sulaima" , while you play violin

 

You who is mentioning (Al-Amiriya) 

I get jealous when someone mentions her name

 

I get jealous of her clothes

when they touch her softened body

 

I feel jealous from her father and mother

If they whispered in her ears

 

I envy the glasses that kiss her mouth

When she drinks
I think that
Qays summarized to us what is love, and that it is the mixture of the primary feelings that we have mentioned.

This song represents a teenage unfulfilled first love. 

لا يَقدِرُ واشٍ يُفسِدُهُ

ما بالُ العاذِلِ يَفتَحُ لي

بابَ السُلوانِ وَأوصِدُهُ

وَيَقولُ تَكادُ تُجَنُّ بِهِ

فَأَقولُ وَأوشِكُ أَعبُدُهُ

مَولايَ وَروحي في يَدِهِ

قَد ضَيَّعَها سَلِمَت يَدُهُ
ناقوسُ القَلبِ يَدُقُّ لَهُ

وَحَنايا الأَضلُعِ مَعبَدُهُ

“Between you and I in love

is that which no slanderer can spoil.

Why does the naysayer open for me

the door for forgetting you and I shut it?

And he says "you are almost mad with him"

so I say: "rather, I almost worship him"

 

My lord, and my soul is in his hands.

He has wasted it, blessed be his hands.

The bells of my heart ring for him,

and the depths within my ribs are his temple.”

Translation by Ibn Omar
—- I choose this beautiful poem that was performed by many big Arab singers  and originally written by the Egyptian poet Ahmad Shawqi. The translation does not do its words justice and every time I hear it or even read it I feel many emotions all at once. The “love” expressed by the poem seems to be out of this world as he worships his lover.  He actually starts the poem by expressing his bad health state as he is almost going to die because his lover abandoned him.and his heart beats rapidly when he thinks of her. I absolutely love this poem.