{"id":14492,"date":"2016-08-29T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=14492"},"modified":"2016-08-31T08:36:11","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T12:36:11","slug":"baalbeck-by-etel-adnan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/baalbeck-by-etel-adnan\/","title":{"rendered":"BAALBECK by Etel Adnan"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a pleasure & an honor for Nomadics<\/strong> blog to publish BAALBECK, a sequence of poems by Etel Adnan<\/strong> translated by Sarah Riggs<\/strong> over the next 4 or 5 days. Below, the opening sections of the poem & a note by Etel Adnan concerning the circumstances of the work.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Etel<\/a>

Etel Adnan & Sarah Riggs by Simone Fattal<\/p><\/div>\n

Last year (2015) there was in Aix en Provence and in\u00a0Baalbeck\u00a0itself an event concerning the\u00a0Baalbeck festival of pre-war Lebanon. A few poets were asked to write for the occasion. The roman-era ruins of that place in the Bekaa Valley which is a high plateau of some 1200 meters heighth (more at its Northern end) are extraordinary and I was taken there first when I was 9 years old, and then often, and it made an impression still with me \u00a0(it became the seat of a festival from about 1955 and on until the civil war interrupted it … it’s coming back and hopefully will be as remarkable. \u00a0\u2014 Etel Adnan<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

B A A L B E C K<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Etel Adnan<\/strong><\/h3>\n

translated by Sarah Riggs with Etel Adnan<\/em><\/p>\n

1.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Orpheus to Mayakovsky
\n<\/span>the sun turned around
\n<\/span>my head
\n<\/span>its mass of gold
\n<\/span>and of light,<\/span><\/p>\n

first divinity
\n<\/span>to have visited me
\n<\/span>– and for sure
\n<\/span>the last –
\n<\/span>for which temples
\n<\/span>of stone
\n<\/span>have risen<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s among monoliths
\n<\/span>and columns
\n<\/span>that I understood,
\n<\/span>as a child,
\n<\/span>that my kingdom would be
\n<\/span>made of these rocks
\n<\/span>and of their night. <\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/span><\/p>\n

A dryness settled
\n<\/span>my throat,<\/span><\/p>\n

I am not going to
\n<\/span>sing.<\/span><\/p>\n

A temple existed for
\n<\/span>real,
\n<\/span>its stairs are solid<\/span><\/p>\n

the gods, not willing
\n<\/span>to leave,
\n<\/span>danced,
\n<\/span>then decided to die… <\/span><\/p>\n

leaving behind,
\n<\/span>even if barbaric,
\n<\/span>a sun which we have
\n<\/span>loved.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the sealed obscurity
\n<\/span>of the brain
\n<\/span>plants grow
\n<\/span>and fish swim,
\n<\/span>while we believe\u00a0 <\/span>seeing
\n<\/span>landscapes, and looking\u00a0 <\/span>at the
\n<\/span>sea. <\/span><\/p>\n

We will not know if
\n<\/span>life is reversible,
\n<\/span>but in pain is written
\n<\/span>a joy which hurts even
\n<\/span>more, <\/span><\/p>\n

as in the desertification of hearts
\n<\/span>memory’s fingerprint
\n<\/span>is found. <\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around here
\n<\/span>rain is made
\n<\/span>neither
\n<\/span>of water,
\n<\/span>nor of angels.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fields show
\n<\/span>the color of
\n<\/span>blood<\/span><\/p>\n

but the sky is closed<\/p>\n

the youth
\n<\/span>of the single blade of
\n<\/span>grass trying to split
\n<\/span>this wall
\n<\/span>keeps vibrations of
\n<\/span>Orpheus,
\n<\/span>he, mirror of my
\n<\/span>soul. <\/span><\/p>\n

4.<\/span><\/p>\n

With bare hands
\n<\/span>I knocked on mobile
\n<\/span>forces,
\n<\/span>arrived at some
\n<\/span>likenesses of shades,
\n<\/span>all substance having
\n<\/span>fled<\/span><\/p>\n

we live
\n<\/span>in waves
\n<\/span>and wind<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the gods,
\n<\/span>we have abandoned
\n<\/span>an earth
\n<\/span>heavier
\n<\/span>than bunches of grapes
\n<\/span>like we close the
\n<\/span>eyelids of the dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

5<\/span><\/p>\n

The sea is
\n<\/span>far away,
\n<\/span>an horizon of
\n<\/span>fever agitated
\n<\/span>in its sleep
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

by the dream of its
\n<\/span>own splendor. <\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not there
\n<\/span>where I am. <\/span><\/p>\n

The seasons
\n<\/span>contemplate the light’s
\n<\/span>confusion in the arid
\n<\/span>zones of our
\n<\/span>thoughts<\/span><\/p>\n

riddled
\n<\/span>with bullets.<\/span><\/p>\n

On these stretches,
\n<\/span>the mind holds
\n<\/span>its breath<\/span><\/p>\n

like a child
\n<\/span>who has lost his
\n<\/span>mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m going to spend
\n<\/span>the night stretched on
\n<\/span>the heat which they
\n<\/span>have kept.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a pleasure & an honor for Nomadics blog to publish BAALBECK, a sequence of poems by Etel Adnan translated by Sarah Riggs over the next 4 or 5 days. Below, the opening...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1442,91,103],"tags":[1488,1863],"class_list":["post-14492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-culture","category-mashreq","category-poetry","category-translation","tag-etel-adnan","tag-sarah-riggs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14492"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14890,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14492\/revisions\/14890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}