Beauty and Love
Go Out to View the Glorious Love
was swayed by the weather The eyes of his
passion danced with pleasure And Beauty’s
mood too took a different way The two
resolved on amusement and play Those two
shining candles set out and chose The That Pleasure
Place where there were to be found Streams of
violet and ambergris ground That garden of
paradise, that laughing earth Was clay, but
the clay of Adam’s own birth Each young
sapling there was a Sidre tree Each raw plum a
heaven of olivine The flourishing
grass was eternal life Its buds were
suns and its dew, stars by night The rosegarden was a sea of red light Rubies fit for
sultans, pearls of pure light A hundred Sinais of epiphany Those hills
never heard you shall not see me Its bright
lamps were revelation divine With Gabriel's
wing the meadows were lined Faith’s lamp of night, nightflowers of the soul Its autumn rose petals, essence of soul Its jonquils
the wealth of ocean and mine Its narcissus,
souvenir of paradise The sun was a
tree that shed light of dawn The bird of the
spirit there made its home Each tree leaf
there was an archangel’s wing Like blooms of
the pomegranate rose pink A Kashmiri
shawl with rosebuds on green Was trite
likeness for the blooms on that green The guard at
the vineyard gate there was Mars He tended full moons
instead of sunflowers The apples, the oranges, fruit-bearing trees Carnelian and
coral red treasuries The plain of
the steppe wase decked out with stars And diamonds
more numerous than dry stone shards Strewn there in
the dirt each fragment of stone A
star guiding lovers
faithfully home The Jesus rose
never failing to tend The flowers
there was Mary's cyclamen So many fresh
downy-cheeked beauties there The plains,
steppes, sprung violets everywhere Like thought’s
garden of fantastical things
For rosebuds
nightingales bloomed with red wings The Hizir of the grass an emerald sea Peridot ships, rows of shrubbery Like pistachio
trees with branches hung down Houris with their eyelashes swept the ground The lamp of the
rose there shining so fine Burned brilliantly with the oil of red wine Majnun's willow shook down its curly mane Till Leyla took up the wild desert's chain The cypress displayed its lofty physique Resurrection
Day fell down at its feet The red poppy drunk
on lunatic wine Disdained
goblets blown of crystal most fine The Erguvan tree's fresh young sprouted shoots Were bearing
new fruit of the fire of youth The vines were
like polo sticks set with pearls That bowed to
the ground low like halberdiers Black grapes,
Hindus on the roof standing guard But these stood
watch on the roof of the stars As everyone
knows, the pink and white peach peach
Is soft as a
pretty girl’s lovely cheek The succulent
pear, fragrant, much-preferred Brought water
by hand to cool the orchard The tulips
resplendent waved end to end Like gardeners
with royal red diadems The plum trees
were like luxuriance of fun Each
parrot-fruit chattered there on and on The apricots, Leyla's ruby red lips Goblets of red
wine were mad for a glimpse The cherries
were earrings set with garnet garnet
The sight of
them brought lovers’ looks surfeit Each blade of
grass was a Kashmiri Spring Without change
of season like a painting Without like or
number, bewitching eyes Grazed like
deer in that violet paradise Black plums
like the spring of life eternal Or jewels of Hyacinths
framed the cheek of a wild rose Carnations for
those wild curls served as combs The falcons
there were not trained to the hunt It was the
peacock who tracked the pheasant The hoopoes
like Jam wore crowns on their heads The fairy
troops francolin and partridge That garden of
wild and untended flame Regarded the
sun and moon with disdain Hearts burning
made fireworks burst in the skies Enlightened hearts winked there like fireflies
(Beauty
and Love, 659-703) Seyh Galip . Beauty and Love. |
Beauty and Love at the Pleasure Place of Meaning traditional miniature painting 6" x 7 5/8" gouache on paper by Özgen Felek |