YOUR SOUL

 

 

 

For Besnik Avdiaj

 

 

 

Your soul, my Little Prince,

 

Your soul!

 

 

 

So beautiful in its fevered furies,

 

So rebellious in its virtuous frenzies,

 

So delicious in its ecstasies,

 

So admirable in its sumptuous thirst for love!

 

 

 

How unaware it is,

 

In its vibrant splendour

 

And seraphic ingenuity,

 

Of the floating Sargassum of melancholy!

 

 

 

Your soul, my Little Prince,

 

Your soul!

 

 

 

Your soul that opens up space

 

And makes the evening more ethereal,

 

With its fragrance

 

Of cherries,

 

Strawberries

 

And coriander!

 

 

 

Your soul, my Little Prince,

 

Your soul!

 

 

 

All this metaphysical radiance,

 

This primordial harmony

 

And this profundity

 

Which makes the leaves of the aspen tree

 

Tremble with fear

 

At the end of a day

 

As prosperous and blissful as this!

 

 

 

No, my delicious Friend,

 

Cranach the Elder’s

 

The Nymph of the Spring

 

Is not so far removed from your dreams of vigorous children!

 

 

 

Athanase Vantchev de Thracy

 

 

 

Haskovo, May 22, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

 

 

 

Sargassum : from the Spanish word sargazo meaning "seaweed". Kind of brown seaweed whose fronds can reach several meters in length.

 

 

 

Coriander - Coriandrum sativum - (n.):  from the classical Latin coriandrium, itself from Greek κορίανδρον / koríandron. Coriander is an annual herb of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). It is an aromatic plant.

 

 

 

The Nymph of the source (1537): painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

 

 

 

Lucas Müller, known as Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) : painter and engraver of the German Renaissance. His surname derives from that of his hometown. He is the father of Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586).