Taku, this oneās rather puzzling. But, considering this is a riddle from a Sunday School Teacher, it shouldnāt be as complex as it seems.
First of all, if the term āLoveā is referring to his wife under the same name, then the riddle hints that the wife is under somewhere we stand upon, implicated by the term, āstand.ā In this case, it means that the wife is buried somewhere, and maybe the man threw his wife into the dug hole very quickly. This is further proven by the third verse which implicated that the man had perception of his wife but the same could not be said for his wife. Then again, that could just mean that the wife was blindfolded or - the more obvious fact, she was dead, and the dead canāt see.
The verse I donāt understand is
Love I hold fast in my hand.
I was thinking that maybe the āfastā was referring to a fastened knot or a similar object, but then, as I stated, it should not be that complex. Regardless, this hinted that the man came in little contact with his wife, ignoring the method he used in killing her.
Then, thereās the other possibility mentioned by The Star Swordsman; Love be a non-human entity. Of course, that is to say that the riddle be mixed with metaphorical elements, as in the sense that āLoveā represents the compassionate feeling from or for his wife.
If the case be the latter one, then it could mean that his wife ālovesā where he sit and stand, and from those positions, he was able to hold something and, he was able to see his wife but she couldnāt do the same.
Sigh. In the end, I still donāt get what the second verse means. Looks like it will be a while before anyone solves this. Well, if this riddle passes a considerate amount of time without being solved, then you might as well reveal the answer as I did, Haystack.
Iāll bet the koko sen tantei would had been able to solve this in an instantā¦