For Tien
Valentine's Day, 2026
“I closed my mouth and spoke to you in a hundred silent ways.”
Tien,
Eight years of discovering what love truly means. You are every kind of fireworks — the ones that light up the sky, and the ones that glow softly long after everyone else has gone home.
You are the one who makes coffee exactly when I need it. The one who builds a life, beautifully, persistently, in a city made of water.
You are the most extraordinary force in my life. Present as the sunrise. Steady as the tide. Every morning. Always. IJburg.
What I See When I See You
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”
“In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.”
“Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”
“A heart filled with love is like a phoenix that no cage can imprison.”
“This is how I would die into the love I have for you: As pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight.”
“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul, there is no such thing as separation.”
“Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet, Through Love all that is copper will be gold, Through Love all dregs will turn to purest wine, Through Love all pain will turn to medicine.”
Dichter der Liebe
Poets of Love
Was es ist
Erich Fried
Es ist Unsinn sagt die Vernunft
Es ist was es ist sagt die Liebe
Es ist Unglück sagt die Berechnung
Es ist nichts als Schmerz sagt die Angst
Es ist aussichtslos sagt die Einsicht
Es ist was es ist sagt die Liebe
Es ist lächerlich sagt der Stolz
Es ist leichtsinnig sagt die Vorsicht
Es ist unmöglich sagt die Erfahrung
Es ist was es ist sagt die Liebe
It is what it is, says Love.
Nähe des Geliebten
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ich denke dein, wenn mir der Sonne Schimmer vom Meere strahlt;
Ich denke dein, wenn sich des Mondes Flimmer in Quellen malt.
Ich sehe dich, wenn auf dem fernen Wege der Staub sich hebt;
In tiefer Nacht, wenn auf dem schmalen Stege der Wandrer bebt.
Ich bin bei dir, du seist auch noch so ferne, du bist mir nah!
Die Sonne sinkt, bald leuchten mir die Sterne. O wärst du da!
I think of you when the sun shimmers from the sea. I think of you when the moon glimmers in the springs. I am with you, however far away you are — you are near to me.
Liebes-Lied
Rainer Maria Rilke
Wie soll ich meine Seele halten, dass
sie nicht an deine rührt? Wie soll ich sie
hinheben über dich zu andern Dingen?
Ach gerne möcht ich sie bei irgendwas
Verlorenem im Dunkel unterbringen
an einer fremden stillen Stelle, die
nicht weiterschwingt, wenn deine Tiefen schwingen.
How shall I hold my soul so that it does not touch yours? How shall I lift it over you to other things? I would so much like to place it among lost things in the dark, in some quiet, unknown place that does not vibrate when your depths vibrate.
Nhà Thơ Tình Yêu
Poets of Love — for your Vietnamese heart
Yêu
Xuân Diệu
Yêu là chết ở trong lòng một ít
Vì mấy khi yêu mà chắc được yêu
Cho rất nhiều song nhận chẳng bao nhiêu
Người ta phụ hoặc thờ ơ chẳng biết.
Nhưng mà yêu! Yêu vẫn cứ là yêu!
Như sóng nước vỗ hoài trên ghềnh đá,
Vẫn thương yêu cho đến phút cuối cùng.
To love is to die a little inside, for how often can we be certain our love is returned? We give so much, yet receive so little. But to love! To love is still to love! Like waves crashing endlessly upon the shore — we love until the very last moment.
Tương Tư
Nguyễn Bính
Thôn Đoài ngồi nhớ thôn Đông,
Một người chín nhớ mười mong một người.
Gió mưa là bệnh của giời,
Tương tư là bệnh của tôi yêu nàng.
From the western village, I sit longing for the eastern one. One heart aches with every kind of yearning for another. Rain and wind are the ailments of the sky. Longing is the ailment of my love for you.
Đợi Anh Về
Hữu Loan
Em ơi đợi anh về
Đợi anh hoài em nhé
Mưa rơi phố đầy
Em ơi em đợi
Tình đầu như trăng soi
Yêu em mãi mãi thôi.
My love, wait for me to return. Wait for me always, my dear. The rain fills the streets. My love, please wait. First love shines like moonlight. I love you forever and always.
Our Universe
Amsterdam
We built our world where the city meets the water.
Eight Years
Time deepened. And so did we.
Two Cultures
German soul meets Vietnamese grace. Both whole. Both beautiful.
One Home
IJburg, where the sunrise finds us.
Our Story in Time
2018
The Beginning
Two worlds collided
2019
Growing Roots
Learning each other's languages — of love, of silence, of laughter
2020
The Crucible
When the world stopped, we held on tighter
2021
Amsterdam
A city of water became our home
2022
Building
Dreams became blueprints became rooms we lived in
2023
IJburg
Where the sunrise finds us every morning
2024
Deepening
The kind of knowing that only years can give
2025
Together
Still choosing. Still growing. Still us.
2026
This Moment
Every year, more sure than the last
Wisdom from the Masters
“Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”
“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.”
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
“True love has no opposite, because it arises from beyond the mind.”
“If you love a flower, let it be. Love is about appreciation.”
The Art of Loving
Die Kunst des Liebens
“Love is an activity, a standing in — a giving, a creating. To love someone means to care, to take responsibility, to respect, and to know that person deeply. It is the active concern for the life and growth of that which we love.”
Erich Fromm — The Art of Loving, 1956
What Eight Years Teach
Eight years is long enough to see someone completely. Every strength, every habit, every tender place. And it is exactly long enough to understand that love is choosing someone — wholly, with full knowledge of who they are — and saying: yes. Again. Every morning. Yes.
The greatest love stories are written in ordinary mornings. In the coffee that appears. In the hand that reaches. In the quiet way two people learn to be a home for each other.
A Poem for You
Before the algorithms, before the architecture,
before I learned to build systems that think —
there was a simpler equation.
You, walking through the door.
Everything else, solved.
Eight years of mornings in IJburg,
of your coffee arriving exactly when I need it,
of your laughter filling every room,
of building something by hand, by heart,
by the slow, brave choice
to stay and grow together.
They say love is patient.
I say love is you —
the way you wait for me
to finish one more line of code,
then gently close the laptop
and take my hand.
The mystics wrote about a field
beyond right and wrong.
Rumi said he'd meet us there.
I think it's our kitchen.
Around midnight.
When the city is quiet
and the water outside catches the moon.
That field.
Every morning.
Still yours.
I have something better than roses that last a week.
I have this — a page that lives as long as the internet does. Built with the same tools I use to build everything else, aimed at the only thing that truly matters.
You. Us. This life we chose.
With love, Frank
Valentine's Day, 2026 — Amsterdam
“Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces.”
— Rumi
You found the hidden heart.
Just like you found mine.