Hide and seek

Lontano, lontano

Prendete la vita con leggerezza, che leggerezza non è superficialità, ma planare sulle cose dall’alto, non avere macigni sul cuore.

Italo Calvino

Stop some where

If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, 

But I shall be good help to you nevertheless 

And filter and fiber your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

Missing me one place search another,

I stop some where waiting for you.

- Walt Whitman -

The Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. 

All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the 'Alamin. 

The Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. 

The Only Owner of the Day of Recompense

You Alone we worship, and You Alone we ask for help. 

Guide us to the Straight Way,

The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not the way of those who earned Your Anger, nor of those who went astray.

In nome di Allah, il Compassionevole, il Misericordioso. 

La lode appartiene ad Allah, Signore dei mondi, 

il Compassionevole, il Misericordioso, 

Re del Giorno del Giudizio. 

Te noi adoriamo e a Te chiediamo aiuto. 

Guidaci sulla retta via, 

la via di coloro che hai colmato di grazia, non di coloro che sono incorsi nella Tua ira, né degli sviati.

- The Qur'an- Surah Al-Fatihah -

Majulah Singapura!

Desert's bank?!

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, 

but wants it back the minute it begins to rain

- Mark Twain -

Les Racines du ciel

I'm not a believer, but even if you don't believe there are limits.

- Émile Ajar -

Gompa

All good people agree,
And all good people say,
All nice people, like Us, are We
And every one else is They:
But if you cross over the sea,
Instead of over the way,
You may end by (think of it!) looking on We
As only a sort of They!

- Rudyard Kipling -

An heaven on earth

Some for the glories of this world; and some

sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;

ah, take the cash, and let the credit go,

nor heed the rumble of a distant drum!

Alcuni vivono per la gloria del mondo,

altri per i paradisi dei profeti a venire;

prendi ciò che hai e lascia andare le promesse,

esse sono il suono di un tamburo distante.

- Omar Khayyam -

Butterflies

Ti ricordi di un mattino di farfalle e quel pomeriggio di fiori silvestri?

An der schönen blauen Donau

Far from the Black Forest

you hurry to the sea

giving your blessing

to everything.

Eastward you flow,

welcoming your brothers,

A picture of peace

for all time!

Impatience

Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.

W. H. Auden

A roost for every bird

"The historical debate is over.

The answer is free-market capitalism."

Thomas Friedman

The delicate prey

There are too many tears in my eyes!
The fires of Hell are no more than sparks of fire
as compared to the flames that consume me inside.
Paradise? For me it means
a moment of peace.

(Omar Khayyam)

Élégance

You may have the universe if I may have Italy 

 Giuseppe Verdi

Same same, but different!

Like all young men, you greatly exaggerate the difference between one young woman and another.

George Bernard Shaw

Darkness

When one looks into the darkness, there is always something there.

- W. B. Yeats -

L'Urbe

[...]

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.

And some who have just returned from the border say

There are no barbarians any longer.

And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?

They were, those people, a kind of solution.

- Konstantinos Kavafis -

Züri

Switzerland is a country where very few things begin, but many things end.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The road not taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 

And sorry I could not travel both 

And be one traveler, long I stood 

And looked down one as far as I could 

To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair, 

And having perhaps the better claim, 

Because it was grassy and wanted wear; 

Though as for that the passing there 

Had worn them really about the same, 

And both that morning equally lay 

In leaves no step had trodden black. 

Oh, I kept the first for another day! 

Yet knowing how way leads on to way, 

I doubted if I should ever come back. 

I shall be telling this with a sigh 

Somewhere ages and ages hence: 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— 

I took the one less traveled by, 

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

La strada non presa

Divergevano due strade in un bosco
ingiallito, e spiacente di non poterle fare
entrambe uno restando, a lungo mi fermai
una di esse finché potevo scrutando
là dove in mezzo agli arbusti svoltava.

Poi presi l’altra, così com’era,
che aveva forse i titoli migliori,
perché era erbosa e non portava segni;
benché, in fondo, il passar della gente
le avesse invero segnate più o meno lo stesso,

perché nessuna in quella mattina mostrava
sui fili d’erba l’impronta nera d’un passo.
Oh, quell’altra lasciavo a un altro giorno!
Pure, sapendo bene che strada porta a strada,
dubitavo se mai sarei tornato.

lo dovrò dire questo con un sospiro
in qualche posto fra molto molto tempo:
Divergevano due strade in un bosco, ed io…
io presi la meno battuta,
e di qui tutta la differenza è venuta.

Life through windows, part II

I'm not sentimental--I'm as romantic as you are. The idea, you know,

is that the sentimental person thinks things will last--the romantic

person has a desperate confidence that they won't.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

London calling

Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears.

Italo Calvino

Life through windows

"I did not want to think so much about her. I wanted to take her as an unexpected, delightful gift, that had come and would go again — nothing more. I meant not to give room to the thought that it could ever be more. I knew too well that all love has the desire for eternity and that therein lies its eternal torment. Nothing lasts. Nothing."

Erich Maria Remarque

Suisse peacefulness

Switzerland is, above all, a state of mind. It's a sanctuary where to collate experiences lived elsewhere.

Paradise. The path to the sky may sometimes be very steep.

A different Angkor

Stars

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

(Caesar Marcus Aurelius)

Khmer countryside

There’s nothing––absolutely nothing––half so much worth doing as messing about in boats.

(Kenneth Grahame)

Watergames!

As the sun goes down

Rice field and palm trees

The lady of the lake

Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs,
you look like a world [...]

(Pablo Neruda)

Ithaca

Ithaca

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,

pray that the road is long,

full of adventure, full of knowledge.

The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,

the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:

You will never find such as these on your path,

if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine

emotion touches your spirit and your body.

The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,

the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,

if you do not carry them within your soul,

if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.

That the summer mornings are many, when,

with such pleasure, with such joy

you will enter ports seen for the first time;

stop at Phoenician markets,

and purchase fine merchandise,

mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

and sensual perfumes of all kinds,

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

visit many Egyptian cities,

to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.

To arrive there is your ultimate goal.

But do not hurry the voyage at all.

It is better to let it last for many years;

and to anchor at the island when you are old,

rich with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.

Without her you would have never set out on the road.

She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.

Wise as you have become, with so much experience,

you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

---o---o---o---

Quando ti metterai in viaggio per Itaca
devi augurarti che la strada sia lunga,
fertile in avventure e in esperienze.
I Lestrigoni e i Ciclopi
o la furia di Nettuno non temere,
non sara` questo il genere di incontri
se il pensiero resta alto e un sentimento
fermo guida il tuo spirito e il tuo corpo.
In Ciclopi e Lestrigoni, no certo,
ne' nell'irato Nettuno incapperai
se non li porti dentro
se l'anima non te li mette contro.

Devi augurarti che la strada sia lunga.
Che i mattini d'estate siano tanti
quando nei porti - finalmente e con che gioia -
toccherai terra tu per la prima volta:
negli empori fenici indugia e acquista
madreperle coralli ebano e ambre
tutta merce fina, anche profumi
penetranti d'ogni sorta; piu' profumi inebrianti che puoi,
va in molte citta` egizie
impara una quantità di cose dai dotti.

Sempre devi avere in mente Itaca -
raggiungerla sia il pensiero costante.
Soprattutto, non affrettare il viaggio;
fa che duri a lungo, per anni, e che da vecchio
metta piede sull'isola, tu, ricco
dei tesori accumulati per strada
senza aspettarti ricchezze da Itaca.
Itaca ti ha dato il bel viaggio,
senza di lei mai ti saresti messo
sulla strada: che cos'altro ti aspetti?

E se la trovi povera, non per questo Itaca ti avrà deluso.
Fatto ormai savio, con tutta la tua esperienza addosso
gia` tu avrai capito cio` che Itaca vuole significare.

(Constantine P. Cavafy) 

Pak Ou's hundreds of Buddha

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way, and not starting.

(Buddha)

Time goes by

At Ongcor, there are ruins of such grandeur that, at the first view, one is filled with profound admiration, and cannot but ask what has become of this powerful race, so civilized, so enlightened, the authors of these gigantic works?
(Henri Mouhot)

The Voyage

The Voyage

To Maxime du Camp

I

To a child who is fond of maps and engravings

The universe is the size of his immense hunger.

Ah! how vast is the world in the light of a lamp!

In memory's eyes how small the world is!

One morning we set out, our brains aflame, 

Our hearts full of resentment and bitter desires, 

And we go, following the rhythm of the wave, 

Lulling our infinite on the finite of the seas:

Some, joyful at fleeing a wretched fatherland; 

Others, the horror of their birthplace; a few, 

Astrologers drowned in the eyes of some woman, 

Some tyrannic Circe with dangerous perfumes.

Not to be changed into beasts, they get drunk 

With space, with light, and with fiery skies; 

The ice that bites them, the suns that bronze them, 

Slowly efface the bruise of the kisses.

But the true voyagers are only those who leave 

Just to be leaving; hearts light, like balloons, 

They never turn aside from their fatality 

And without knowing why they always say: "Let's go!"

Those whose desires have the form of the clouds, 

And who, as a raw recruit dreams of the cannon, 

Dream of vast voluptuousness, changing and strange, 

Whose name the human mind has never known!

II

Horror! We imitate the top and bowling ball, 

Their bounding and their waltz; even in our slumber 

Curiosity torments us, rolls us about, 

Like a cruel Angel who lashes suns.

Singular destiny where the goal moves about,

And being nowhere can be anywhere!

Toward which Man, whose hope never grows weary,

Is ever running like a madman to find rest!

Our soul's a three-master seeking Icaria;

A voice resounds upon the bridge: "Keep a sharp eye!"

From aloft a voice, ardent and wild, cries:

"Love... glory... happiness!" –Damnation! It's a shoal!

Every small island sighted by the man on watch 

Is the Eldorado promised by Destiny; 

Imagination preparing for her orgy 

Finds but a reef in the light of the dawn.

O the poor lover of imaginary lands! 

Must he be put in irons, thrown into the sea, 

That drunken tar, inventor of Americas, 

Whose mirage makes the abyss more bitter?

Thus the old vagabond tramping through the mire 

Dreams with his nose in the air of brilliant Edens; 

His enchanted eye discovers a Capua 

Wherever a candle lights up a hut.

III

Astonishing voyagers! What splendid stories 

We read in your eyes as deep as the seas! 

Show us the chest of your rich memories, 

Those marvelous jewels, made of ether and stars.

We wish to voyage without steam and without sails! 

To brighten the ennui of our prisons, 

Make your memories, framed in their horizons, 

Pass across our minds stretched like canvasses.

Tell us what you have seen.

IV

"We have seen stars

And waves; we have also seen sandy wastes;

And in spite of many a shock and unforeseen

Disaster, we were often bored, as we are here.

The glory of sunlight upon the purple sea, 

The glory of cities against the setting sun, 

Kindled in our hearts a troubling desire 

To plunge into a sky of alluring colors.

The richest cities, the finest landscapes, 

Never contained the mysterious attraction 

Of the ones that chance fashions from the clouds 

And desire was always making us more avid!

— Enjoyment fortifies desire. 

Desire, old tree fertilized by pleasure, 

While your bark grows thick and hardens, 

Your branches strive to get closer to the sun!

Will you always grow, tall tree more hardy

Than the cypress? — However, we have carefully

Gathered a few sketches for your greedy album,

Brothers who think lovely all that comes from afar!

We have bowed to idols with elephantine trunks; 

Thrones studded with luminous jewels; 

Palaces so wrought that their fairly-like splendor 

Would make your bankers have dreams of ruination;

And costumes that intoxicate the eyes; 

Women whose teeth and fingernails are dyed 

And clever mountebanks whom the snake caresses."

V

And then, and then what else?

VI

"O childish minds!

Not to forget the most important thing,

We saw everywhere, without seeking it, 

From the foot to the top of the fatal ladder, 

The wearisome spectacle of immortal sin:

Woman, a base slave, haughty and stupid, 

Adoring herself without laughter or disgust; 

Man, a greedy tyrant, ribald, hard and grasping, 

A slave of the slave, a gutter in the sewer;

The hangman who feels joy and the martyr who sobs, 

The festival that blood flavors and perfumes; 

The poison of power making the despot weak, 

And the people loving the brutalizing whip;

Several religions similar to our own, 

All climbing up to heaven; Saintliness 

Like a dilettante who sprawls in a feather bed, 

Seeking voluptuousness on horsehair and nails;

Prating humanity, drunken with its genius, 

And mad now as it was in former times, 

Crying to God in its furious death-struggle: 

'O my fellow, O my master, may you be damned!'

The less foolish, bold lovers of Madness, 

Fleeing the great flock that Destiny has folded, 

Taking refuge in opium's immensity! 

— That's the unchanging report of the entire globe."

VII

Bitter is the knowledge one gains from voyaging! 

The world, monotonous and small, today, 

Yesterday, tomorrow, always, shows us our image: 

An oasis of horror in a desert of ennui!

Must one depart? Remain? If you can stay, remain;

Leave, if you must. One runs, another hides

To elude the vigilant, fatal enemy,

Time! There are, alas! those who rove without respite,

Like the Wandering Jew and like the Apostles, 

Whom nothing suffices, neither coach nor vessel, 

To flee this infamous retiary; and others 

Who know how to kill him without leaving their cribs.

And when at last he sets his foot upon our spine, 

We can hope and cry out: Forward! 

Just as in other times we set out for China, 

Our eyes fixed on the open sea, hair in the wind,

We shall embark on the sea of Darkness

With the glad heart of a young traveler.

Do you hear those charming, melancholy voices

Singing: "Come this way! You who wish to eat

The perfumed Lotus! It's here you gather 

The miraculous fruits for which your heart hungers; 

Come and get drunken with the strange sweetness 

Of this eternal afternoon?"

By the familiar accent we know the specter; 

Our Pylades yonder stretch out their arms towards us. 

"To refresh your heart swim to your Electra!" 

Cries she whose knees we kissed in other days.

VIll

O Death, old captain, it is time! let's weigh anchor!

This country wearies us, O Death! Let us set sail!

Though the sea and the sky are black as ink,

Our hearts which you know well are filled with rays of light

Pour out your poison that it may refresh us!

This fire burns our brains so fiercely, we wish to plunge

To the abyss' depths, Heaven or Hell, does it matter?

To the depths of the Unknown to find something new!"

(Charles Baudelaire)