Meaning of a poem: 'I thought that pain meant...love'

[Tom]

Hi

Could you please explain the red lines to me?

Long ago, I was wounded. I lived
to revenge myself
against my father, not
for what he was—
for what I was: from the beginning of time,
in childhood, I thought
that pain meant
I was not loved.
It meant I loved.


Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

I think it just means that he thought the source of his emotinal pain was the fact that his father didn't love him. But then he realized that real reason was the fact that he loved his father.

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English