Istanbul

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Sonnet of the Wishing Stone

Posted by Maverick ~ on August 19, 2019
Posted in: Music, Photography, Poetry. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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Sonnet of the Wishing Stone

If I were rain, and on your earth could rain
If I were a candle, could light your way
If I were fire, could set your bed aflame
If I were a pen, could write on your page
.
If I were sky, carmine blue
If I were desert, scorpion yellow
If I were stone, heavy black
If I were water, froth white
.
If I were a soul, if I could fly, a bird
If I were flesh, if I could swell, the sea
If I were body, if I could blow, the wind
.
If I were mist, could drop upon you, morning
If I were cloud, descend to your world, evening
If I were a candle, could expire inside you, night.

poet:  Enis Batur
translated: Cas Stockford
at DAM, Istanbul, September 2016

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Vase of Flowers

Posted by Maverick ~ on June 20, 2018
Posted in: Art, Music, Photography. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Vase of Flowers (ca. 1720)
Jan van Huysum
Dutch, 1682-1749
Oil on wood panel

"The 17th-century Dutch were horticultural leaders who introduced Europe to many new species of flowers from their Caribbean and Far Eastern colonies. Huysum gained an international reputation for the technical skill and detailed realism in his sumptuous arrangements of exotic as well as more common specimens. Included here are two rare specimens of tulip (top, left of center), a popular flower originally imported from Constantinople (Istanbul). In the famous market craze of 1637, dubbed Tulipmania, one tulip bulb in Amsterdam was worth the price of a house on a coveted canal lot. The market crashed in 1638, but tulips were still much prized when Huysum painted these blooms a century later."

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