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I know you wanna see each other more often, but...
I'm letting you go!

I've always put away the fire in your eyes,
And made your world spin,
Always anxious on me,
The one to set you free.

Was that a lifetime ago?
Or mere seconds, or both?

Don't look back,
You won't see me anymore!

Who am I?

Hint:

The title is not random.

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  • $\begingroup$ Could you maybe add the "real" question? So that it is clear whether you are looking for an it, of a someone or something. (e.g. What am I?, Who am I?) $\endgroup$
    – Foitn
    Sep 23, 2016 at 8:18
  • $\begingroup$ @Foitn Thanks for the suggestion, I edited the title. $\endgroup$ Sep 23, 2016 at 8:20
  • $\begingroup$ @BogdanAlexandru, since you've just bountied this is it fair to assume that none of the three answers below comes very close to your intention? $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Sep 30, 2016 at 22:13
  • $\begingroup$ @GarethMcCaughan Exactly. $\endgroup$ Oct 1, 2016 at 8:03
  • $\begingroup$ (note: I asked that question before posting my own answer, so Bogdan's comment gives us no information on whether that is anywhere near the mark or not.) $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Oct 2, 2016 at 10:29

7 Answers 7

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I think it's

a trafficlight. Specifically, a green light

I know you wanna see each other more often, but... I'm letting you go!

Everyone wants to see the greenlight, but it means "Go"

I've always put away the fire in your eyes, And made your world spin, Always anxious on me, The one to set you free.

Greenlights put away the red lights - or the anxious fire in the driver's eyes. Making their world spin? Perhaps their tires spin. People are anxious to go, and the green light allows them to go.

Was that a lifetime ago? Or mere seconds, or both?

Anyone stuck in traffic knows it sometimes seems a lifetime before a light changes...

Don't look back, You won't see me anymore!

Because you've driven past it, and can no longer see it.

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Is it the

Sun and the moon

I know you wanna see each other more often, but...
I'm letting you go!

An eclipse? When the sun moon and Earth are in line, but they must pass one and leave each other

I've always put away the fire in your eyes,
And made your world spin...
Always anxious on me,
The one to set you free.

Moon reflects sunlight (fire in its eyes) and the Sun makes the Earth spin in orbit

Was that a lifetime ago?
Or mere seconds, or both?

Possibly the time it takes for light to reach the Earth or Moon (8 minutes)

Don't look back,
You won't see me anymore!

One of them tragically sets and must now wait till dawn or dusk to hopefully get another peek at the other

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This is an extremely partial answer which I'm posting because it seems likely to be on the right track but if so I have a mental blind spot that's stopping me getting all the way. (If you're reading this and figure out how to make it work, please post a better answer with my blessing.)

I think the phenomenon being described here is

radioactive decay, or some similar particle-physics-y process

and the speaker is

probably whatever has decayed, addressing some of the decay products -- perhaps a particle and antiparticle or two photons (gamma rays).

Some particular bits of the riddle that make me think this:

I've always put away the fire in your eyes,
And made your world spin,

I suspect this is quantum intrinsic spin rather than macroscopic things-moving-around spin.

Was that a lifetime ago?
Or mere seconds, or both?

This could apply in two ways. (1) Thanks to relativity, what's mere seconds (or much less) in one reference frame could be much much longer in another. (2) Some unstable particles and nuclei have lifetimes way shorter than a second.

Don't look back,
You won't see me anymore!

If the particles that have been emitted are photons, they are travelling at the speed of light and there is no way for any signal from the thing they were emitted from to catch them up.

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I think @BeastlyGerbil is on the right track with his answer, but

the perspective of the riddle suggests that the actual solution is speaking to the sun and moon. As such, my guess is the horizon.

The horizon is the place where the sun and moon are "put away" at sunset/moonset. It is also evidence of the Earth being round and spinning. Lastly, by looking back (the other way), you won't see the horizon anymore.

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Could it be

A farewell?

I know you wanna see each other more often, but...
I'm letting you go!

People usually don't want to separate from each other while sticking together.
(especially friends, families or lovers)

I've always put away the fire in your eyes,

People may cry in a farewell, the passion - the "fire" in the riddle - you can see in those eyes gradually being "put away" by tears.

And made your world spin,

A graduation means a farewell to the students, but also a great change in their phase of life.

Always anxious on me,

When it comes to a farewell, people are afraid of its arrival.

The one to set you free.

A farewell breaks the constraint from other people for being together, which is "set someone free" in a way.

Was that a lifetime ago?
Or mere seconds, or both?

Sounds like the theory of relativity. People feel the time flies when they had a good time. It's like pass through a lifetime in "mere seconds."

Don't look back,
You won't see me anymore!

In physical way, a farewell is a moment on a timeline. Once it happened, it never came back.

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Could it be

a fire engine?

As a secondary answer, the "you" that the riddle is addressed to is

a match, or fire in general.

I know you wanna see each other more often, but...
I'm letting you go!

The fire engine is used to put out fires, which could be seen as "letting the fire go" or even "letting the flame die", which would fit with the love story in the title.

I've always put away the fire in your eyes,
And made your world spin,
Always anxious on me,
The one to set you free.

Obviously, the fire engine "puts away the fire". The rotating light in a siren could be the spinning. The last two lines refer yet again to extinguishing the fire.

Was that a lifetime ago?
Or mere seconds, or both?

A match can start a huge fire, but the match itself only lasts a few seconds.

Don't look back,
You won't see me anymore!

After the fire is out, the engine is returned to the station, so it's not where the fire was any more.

Finally, the title:

Fires can be a major hazard in densely populated urban areas, and the continued "visits" that the fire engines make to the fires could be imagined as a romance that the fire wants to continue, but the fire engine wants to end.

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I think its time. We all want more. But time waits for no one. It brings us passion that passes. It makes our world go round. We anxiously await. When this moment or time is gone its gone.

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