Ode to the Humblest of Flowers

Dandelion, ecumenic flower,

 the year obeys

your golden ardor

 to assign its happiest days

on unwritten folios.

You are worthy of a hymn,

 unregarded roadside bloom,

your one pure wish to sow

 the earth with seed --

so you blossom and fade,

 contriving the halo around

some unknown saint’s head.

Lucian Blaga, tr. by James Owens 

Odă simplisimei flori

Păpădie, ecumenică floare,
după a ta aurie ardoare
– pe nescrisele file –
anul îşi hotăreşte fericitele zile.

De un pean te-nvredniceşti,
tu, neluată în seamă, floare de rând.
Sămânţă să faci pe pământ
e tot ce doreşti. Alt gând nu porţi.
Dar înfloreşti şi asfinţeşti
alcătuind o aureolă de sfânt.

the solace of flowers

and then the colours came, and with them my endless fascination with vases - my vases full of flowers, again and again... i read in Kafka's letters to Felice that he "has no feelings for flowers", never had, flowers leave him cold, unless they come from her, and even then... 

some pages later, i read: "with the effort needed in order to keep myself alive and to not lose my mind, i could have built the pyramids". 

if only he had known the solace of flowers, it nearly burst out of me, if only ---

and off into the empty sky

you will be able to see more photos from my travel to Japan on the new blog that i have created for telling the story of my trip:  

and off into the empty sky