{"id":14891,"date":"2016-08-31T08:56:24","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T12:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=14891"},"modified":"2016-08-31T08:56:24","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T12:56:24","slug":"baalbeck-by-etel-adnan-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/baalbeck-by-etel-adnan-3\/","title":{"rendered":"BAALBECK by Etel Adnan (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

On a wall, a lion
\n<\/span>was sculpted<\/span><\/p>\n

the first animal I loved
\n<\/span>was cold <\/span><\/p>\n

the second unveiled
\n<\/span>the incredible depth of
\n<\/span>the flesh <\/span><\/p>\n

the stone
\n<\/span>was from the
\n<\/span>Orient, <\/span><\/p>\n

love,
\n<\/span>elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

Watch out
\n<\/span>for the past,
\n<\/span>a poison for our
\n<\/span>fields, <\/span><\/p>\n

for these columns
\n<\/span>which are trees,
\n<\/span>regardless of spring
\n<\/span>or winter.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

There, abroad,
\n<\/span>centuries-old oaks
\n<\/span>have heard Napoleon’s steps
\n<\/span>climbing the
\n<\/span>Rhone Valley, <\/span><\/p>\n

to fall,
\n<\/span>further North,\u00a0 <\/span>on
\n<\/span>enemy territory<\/span><\/p>\n

all defeat
\n<\/span>is the end
\n<\/span>of a life.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Stones resume their conversations
\n<\/span>to make us admit that
\n<\/span>materiality bewilders
\n<\/span>us,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

objects being the children
\n<\/span>of their own shadows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Play in the infernal
\n<\/span>jungles as monkeys do,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

enter the
\n<\/span>labyrinth that
\n<\/span>you are.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Theseus tried to kill
\n<\/span>the Minotaur
\n<\/span>with whom his wife had
\n<\/span>deceived him <\/span><\/p>\n

but the string
\n<\/span>broke, <\/span><\/p>\n

and his anger fell
\n<\/span>on his son. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since, someone may
\n<\/span>remember him, but
\n<\/span>that ascertains
\n<\/span>his death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

There’s in Baalbeck a temple dedicated
\n<\/span>to Bacchus, and in
\n<\/span>Bolinas a Night Palace
\n<\/span>that Joanne Kyger
\n<\/span>protects with her
\n<\/span>poems
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

from under our
\n<\/span>footsteps rises a phantom
\n<\/span>which quickly
\n<\/span>evaporates, <\/span><\/p>\n

because our countries don’t
\n<\/span>cease going up in
\n<\/span>smoke.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Work is an
\n<\/span>incurable
\n<\/span>architecture
\n<\/span>practiced on
\n<\/span><\/span>ourselves… <\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to be within
\n<\/span>an insanity that will work like
\n<\/span>a sky above my
\n<\/span>head, <\/span><\/p>\n

possessed by a nameless
\n<\/span>acceleration.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

I am hungry for the ruins
\n<\/span>where I was running
\n<\/span>in prehistory, <\/span><\/p>\n

I will travel,
\n<\/span>motionless.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

When I went up the pink granite
\n<\/span>toward the summit
\n<\/span>I saw the beginning
\n<\/span>of Asia, <\/span><\/p>\n

the intemporal rejoined
\n<\/span>us. <\/span><\/p>\n

There’s nothing closer
\n<\/span>to the sacred than
\n<\/span>nothingness.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The days are enclosed in
\n<\/span>a bottle of aspirins <\/span><\/p>\n

I tell you, I’m in the
\n<\/span>process of dying<\/span><\/p>\n

the path is not
\n<\/span>spectacular <\/span><\/p>\n

the sun is lying on
\n<\/span>the tides of the
\n<\/span>century, <\/span><\/p>\n

that’s called eternity
\n<\/span>in the calendar of
\n<\/span>Being<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026 and, in my eyes,
\n<\/span>a faded rose. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10. On a wall, a lion was sculpted the first animal I loved was cold the second unveiled the incredible depth of the flesh the stone was from the Orient, love, elsewhere. 11. Watch...<\/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-14891","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\/14891","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=14891"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14897,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14891\/revisions\/14897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}