Sirin.

From time to time I read up on the different legendary creatures that appear in our folklore and urban legends. These can range from vampires to the local Pontianak to mythological dogs such as Ceberus or Anubis or even the man-eating tree.

Then comes one of those myths that just sticks in your head like... the siren song.

In many versions, the siren is either a feminine half-mermaid or half-bird creature that sings its song to mariners, drawing them to their demise.

My first encounter with them was actually on the television. Watching Jason and the Argonauts as a 10-year-old, I asked my dad what were those winged creatures attacking the heroes in the film. "Mermaids" he said. To think I actually believed him 10 years back.

Well little did I know that the winged creatures in the movie were actually harpies. But I digress.


There's a warped beauty to these grecian seductresses. How weak is the spirit of men to easily fall and follow the call of the sirens?

Sailors who heard these songs would be enticed to sail their ships towards the rocks where the sirens reside and ultimately crash. Or they would jump off their vessels and swim towards these rocks and stay with the sirens, forever wanting to hear their beautiful music. These men would then forget everything on earth and eventually die in starvation.


That's how love can consume you. If you allow it to blind your senses and rationality, you will never see the desolation that is ahead. Jason had the aid of Orpheus the musician to play his lyre to drown out the song of the sirens with music much bolder and beautiful.

The passion of love is nothing without the passion for living. How do you make sure that what you have is not just mere ignorance that when problems appear, you allow them to be overshadowed by your own obliviousness?

You find the strength in loving something else as well. Such as friends or family.

Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.