Poetic Oneirism: Valentine's in the Arctic City of Dreams

“peut-être n’y a-t-il que le beau qui nous humanise”

～Alain, Propos sur l’esthétique, 1923

We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.

There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.

～Kahlil Gibran

昔者莊周夢為胡蝶，栩栩然胡蝶也。自喻適志與！不知周也。俄然覺，則蘧蘧然周也。不知周之夢為胡蝶與？胡蝶之夢為周與？周與胡蝶，則必有分矣。此之謂物化。

《莊周夢蝶》

Our hands imbibe like roots, so I place them on what is beautiful in this world. And I fold them in prayer, and they draw from the heavens, light.

～St. Francis of Assisi

To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry.

～G. Bachelard

I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.

～Umberto Eco

Innate in nearly every artistic nature is a wanton, treacherous penchant for accepting injustice when it creates beauty and showing sympathy for and paying homage to aristocratic privilege.

～Thomas Mann

Stay, little ounce, here in/ Fleece and leaf with me, in the evermore/ Where swans trembled in the lake around our bed of hay and morning/ Came each morning like a felt cloak billowing/ Across the most pale day. It was the color of a steeple disappearing/ In an old Venetian sky. (...)

Would they take/ You now from me, like Leonardo's sleeve disappearing in/ The air. And when I woke I could not wake/ You, little sphinx, I could not keep you here with me./ Anywhere, I could not bear to let you go. Stay here/ In our clouded bed of wind and timothy with me./ Lie here with me in snow.

~For a Snow Leopard in October, Lucie Brock-Broido

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

Valentine's in the Arctic City of Dreams

Some snapshots taken during my previous trip to gorgeous Vienna in February, a city that is very quickly wining my heart over. I cannot wait for my next visit at the end of this month.

And here is an absolutely delightful and informative website created for Philharmonia Orchestra's Vienna 1900-1935: City of Dreams series, the first project with conductor and artistic director Esa-Pekka Salonen.

1 comment:

lune_blanc said...: Your photos of Vienna are so dreamy, and thanks for introducing me to the website. What a nicely (and cleverly) designed website that is! Just browsing through it arose my curiosity, I'm DYING to visit Vienna now. It also got me more intrigued by Schonberg's music.

PS
I will check out your latest post (on Kyoto) later!; 15 April 2009 at 14:29

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Tuesday, 7 April 2009

Valentine's in the Arctic City of Dreams

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