{"id":14872,"date":"2016-08-30T09:36:40","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T13:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=14872"},"modified":"2016-08-30T09:36:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T13:36:40","slug":"baalbeck-by-etel-adnan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/baalbeck-by-etel-adnan-2\/","title":{"rendered":"BAALBECK by Etel Adnan (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The stream of water
\n<\/span>running under Ariadne’s
\n<\/span>temple is the thread
\n<\/span>leading to the
\n<\/span>Minotaur
\n<\/span>– before getting lost
\n<\/span>in the cotton
\n<\/span>plantations<\/span><\/p>\n

in the airless labyrinth
\n<\/span>a living mass is
\n<\/span>crying,
\n<\/span>day and night<\/span><\/p>\n

the goddess has left him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0 <\/span>bring him
\n<\/span>olives and wine<\/span><\/p>\n

but the god has
\n<\/span>aged.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from me,
\n<\/span>only the wind knows the
\n<\/span>way<\/span><\/p>\n

which links Arabia to
\n<\/span>Greece,
\n<\/span>and our thoughts to
\n<\/span>this place.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Here, the air
\n<\/span>is dry<\/span><\/p>\n

the living escapes in
\n<\/span>the form of impeccable horses
\n<\/span>which run \u2013 there,
\n<\/span>between the Lebanon and
\n<\/span>the anti-Lebanon
\n<\/span>the world is of a perfect
\n<\/span>intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n

We own all the columns,
\n<\/span>wherever they are,
\n<\/span>being the only ones
\n<\/span>to care.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mediterranean
\nspreads <\/span>from the other side of
\n<\/span>the mountain<\/span><\/p>\n

it suffers from the boats
\n<\/span>that cross its body,
\n<\/span>but has survived
\n<\/span>Carthage, Plato or
\n<\/span>Mutanabbi
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>– like us<\/span><\/p>\n

(are they each alone,
\n<\/span>or talking together,
\n<\/span>how to know?).<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s Memory doing
\n<\/span>among these stones that
\n<\/span>keep returning,
\n<\/span>she, older than Creation,
\n<\/span>– and anxious to say it?
\n<\/span>
\nOrpheus walks
\n<\/span>in the center of
\n<\/span>the village<\/span><\/p>\n

while the wind
\n<\/span>rushes the setting suns
\n<\/span>to carry us
\n<\/span>to places where
\n<\/span>History and Nothingness
\n<\/span>mix their
\n<\/span>great waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

We’re sitting under
\n<\/span>pomegranates that
\n<\/span>came from
\n<\/span>Persia to these harsh
\n<\/span>lands
\n<\/span>– when the voyage was
\n<\/span>granted <\/span><\/p>\n

on the roads,
\n<\/span>passengers speak\u00a0 <\/span>of
\n<\/span>the Aegean Sea as if
\n<\/span>she were a person<\/span><\/p>\n

for them, angels are
\n<\/span>too many… <\/span><\/p>\n

better not to remember.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

There’s something funereal
\n<\/span>about orgies, <\/span><\/p>\n

the time to
\n<\/span>say it, the earth
\n<\/span>has already traveled
\n<\/span>enormous distances.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where, then, is
\n<\/span>joy?:<\/span><\/p>\n

to me enchained,
\n<\/span>an horizon
\n<\/span>too close,
\n<\/span>blinding.<\/span><\/p>\n

(…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6. The stream of water running under Ariadne’s temple is the thread leading to the Minotaur – before getting lost in the cotton plantations in the airless labyrinth a living mass is crying, day...<\/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-14872","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\/14872","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=14872"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14879,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14872\/revisions\/14879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}