Sunday 22 March 2009

flower garden at night, drunk with colour






Come to my garden walk, my love.
Pass by the fervid flowers that
press themselves on your sight.
Pass them by, stopping at some
chance joy,
which like a sudden wonder of sunset illumines,
yet
elude.
For lover’s gift is shy, it never tells its name,
it flits
across the shade, spreading a shiver of joy along the dust.
Overtake it or miss it for ever.
But a gift that can be
grasped is merely a frail flower,
or a lamp with flame that will
flicker.


Lover’s Gifts II: Come to My Garden Walk

Rabindranath Tagore




























Last night in the garden I offered you my youth's foaming wine.
You
lifted the cup to your lips, you shut your eyes and smiled
while
I raised your veil,
unbound your tresses,
drawing down upon my
breast your face sweet with its silence,
last night when the moon's
dream overflowed the world of slumber.
Today in the dew-cooled calm of the dawn
you are walking to
God's temple,
bathed and robed in white,
with a basketful of
flowers in your hand.
I stand aside in the shade under the tree,

with my head bent,
in the calm of the dawn
by the lonely road to
the temple.


Lover’s Gifts XIII: Last Night in the Garden
Rabindranath Tagore




32 comments:

  1. omr.. so beautiful that I could't say anything.. ice-creamy poetry as well.. Someday I would visit your place!!

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  2. So beautiful!! The colours...

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  3. The beauty of these flowers is just intoxicating.

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  4. tout le monde ce cherche dans une apparence dans un fais; pour devenir visible. Les images tes propres oeuvres ont aime on n'aime pas, être ou ne pas être ou entre Meurs ou tue. J'espère que tu me comprends vu ta langue n'ai pas le français; tous ce transforme dans cette univers.Cela étant comment ne pas voir que tu es une artiste;âme qu'elle est claire et distincte.

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  5. how sensual, rich (almost overflowing)...the light, the colors - like bewtiched gardens where lost sailors might themselves (before theyare turned into pigs by evil witch)
    nice selection of Tagore...reminds me of another play by him, about a flower seller - called "Malini"

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  6. You force me to read poetry again, you and your photos and poems of light and dark.
    I am happy for this, and have a little trepidation.

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  7. Photos superbes et mots qui ne le sont pas moins, tu sais si bien créer les correspondances entre images et paroles. Un billet qui ne peut que me parler et tu sais pourquoi.

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  8. These are beautiful, memorable pictures, roxana. For once, I forget the words and see only the pictures. They are like the little fish pictures before-the ancient affinity of colours!

    Reminds me of:

    Forget the actor and look at the heart.
    Forget the heart and then only will you understand Noh.

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  9. tagore! good choice. and you won't go wrong with showing me these pictures either! lol

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  10. Very interesting light and colours! BRAVO Roxana :)))

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  11. so rich in colour, the first one has the heat of hot a summer's night about it.

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  12. It's my first visit and wow amazing photos, your universe is unique really!!

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  13. stopping at some chance joy,
    which like a sudden wonder of sunset illumines,
    yet elude.


    just like your photos, i thought - so much joy for the eye and soul, where joy is closer to beauty than to happiness

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  14. I like how you cropped these images. ;-) It is just like plunging into that sea of colours.

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  15. I don't know what to say when i see your flowers, but i remember what Genet wrote: 'There is a close similarity between flowers and convicts'.

    btw, have you read Genet?

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  16. I have to say that I haven't expected such an enthusiastic reaction for this post, I am overwhelmed!


    Peter, I wouldn't call Tagore 'ice-creamy poetry', but maybe this means something different in english than what I imagine :-)
    so you love my gardens, don't you :-)



    Anonymous, thank you so much. What is your name? :-)



    pensum, this makes me so happy!



    Mary-Laure, that is why I wanted to have 'drunk' in the title... thank you.



    Allan, je comprends, oui, ou j'imagine que je comprends... je suis tres touchee par tes mots, moi-aussi.



    marius, multumesc!

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  17. Zuma, you remembered :-) it was the first time when we spoke at length, wasn't it?
    I have to thank you for making me think of Tagore for this post.



    merc, I hope that it is good for you? reading poetry again? but no, you make me happy when you tell me this. it's so important for me.




    oui, je le sais bien, belle source :-) et un grand merci!


    edith, ma bucur asa mult :-)



    b, this is the greatest compliment ever - from you, I mean :-)

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  18. swiss, I know you like Tagore, I have read yours :-)
    Stray birds of summer come to my
    window to sing and fly away.
    And yellow leaves of autumn,
    which have no songs,
    flutter and fall there with a sigh.

    how beautiful!





    happy to hear from you again, Marc. :-)




    Sorlil, yes, it WAS a summer night...




    omami, thank you for passing by, I will return the visit soon :-)



    m., I am so glad to hear that. I have always thought that the combination was more like 'beauty and sadness'... but if it is joy too, then I cannot but rejoice...



    ah gentle, you are so sweet :-) defending my pictures from silent voices 'far from flattering'? I am still laughing about that.



    kubla, don't you like flowers? how do you understand the Genet quote? I have trouble with it.
    no, I haven't read him. have you written about him?

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  19. Who says my poems are poems?
    My poems are not poems.
    When you know that my poems are not poems,
    Then we can speak of poetry.
    Ryokan.

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  20. oh, merc, how beautiful and how true.

    the strange thing is that I have just read this by him tonight, considering it for a post (maybe I will do it later):

    These old days - I wonder,
    did I dream them
    or were they real?
    In the night I listen
    to the autumn rain

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  21. Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, ... Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream.
    Chuang tzu was poet.

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  22. sunt fan! uite ce culori delicioase, ce bokeh jucaus!

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  23. What can I say but "simply beautiful"...
    Hadn't had much time to spend online, I'm catching up again...I see you've been "drunk with colour" lately, all your colour photos are gorgeous.

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  24. hi michiko, thanks for coming here again :-) have you been busy dancing?
    the beginning of spring is a very good time for all of us to get "drunk with colour" :-)

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  25. frumoasa serie! felicitari.

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  26. mulţumesc Andrei, pentru vizită şi aprecieri!

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  27. your photos have such a sensuous-subversive way with colors that even the color-phobic are seduced...

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  28. color-phobic, my dear ffflaneur?! :-) I won't ask about those golden folds now :-)

    I have noticed that people respond much more to my colour pictures than to the b&w ones, colours seems to awake an enthusiasm that I rarely get for the others. now this can tell something about people's likings or about the fact that my colour pictures are better than my b&w :-)

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