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Sep 01 2019

Odilon Redon & Gabriel Rosenstock: Every Night I Send You Flowers

Odilon Redon, Mystery - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Mystery.
Photograph: Public Domain

Fluttering of the now

gluaiseann an uile ní sa ghrá
as ar cruthaíodh iad
ar a bhfillfidh siad
mura mbeadh sé amhlaidh
chuirfeadh blátha inár gcoinne

all things move in love
are created out of love
return to love
if it were not so
flowers would revolt against us

Bertrand-Jean Redon, better known as Odilon Redon (20th April 1840–6th July 1916), was a French Symbolist painter and printmaker. Known for his pastels and oils, as well as the collection of beautiful lithographs, Guardian Spirit of the Waters (Dans le Rêve), he was deeply fascinated by Hindu and Japanese culture, his art often featuring images of the Buddha.

Gabriel Rosenstock was born in 1949 in postcolonial Ireland and works as a bilingual poet, haikuist, tankaist, children’s writer, essayist, novelist, short story writer, playwright and translator. He is a member Aosdána (Irish Academy of Arts & Letters) and is a Lineage Holder of Celtic Buddhism. Broken Angels is the fourth in an ongoing series of ekphrastic tanka books published by Cross-Cultural Communications, New York, and available as a free e-book on the EDOCR platform.

In this week’s guest post for The Culturium, Gabriel offers a selection of exquisite mystical tanka (five-line verse) in response to Odilon Redon’s glorious art.

My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined. They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous. I await joyous surprises while working, an awakening of the materials that I work with and that my spirit develops. I have a feeling only for shadows. It is precisely from the regret left by the imperfect work that the next one can be born. The artist yields often to the stimuli of materials that will transmit his spirit. My originality consists in putting the logic of the visible to the service of the invisible.
—Odilon Redon

Odilon Redon, Flower Clouds - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Flower Clouds.
Photograph: Public Domain

abair slán le talamh
le gach cuing
slán leis an muir
is gearr go dtabharfaidh ár mbád sinn
thar fhíor na spéire

say farewell to land
to all that ties us
farewell to the sea
soon our boat will take us
beyond the horizon

Odilon Redon, Brunhild (The Valkyrie) - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Brunhild (The Valkyrie).
Photograph: Public Domain

ceangail do chuid gruaige, a shearc
ceangail mise chomh maith
ceangail chomh foirfe sin mé
nach sleamhnóinn go deo
as an néal seo

bind Your hair, beloved
bind me while You are at it
bind me perfectly
that I may never escape
this glorious dream

Odilon Redon, Buddha - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Buddha.
Photograph: Public Domain

a shearc
roinnim mo bhuairt
leis an gcrann
tosnaíonn na duilleoga ag titim
ceann ar cheann

beloved
to the tree
I whisper my sorrow
one by one
leaves begin to fall

Odilon Redon, Butterflies - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Butterflies.
Photograph: Public Domain

i ngairdín
aigne Chang Tsu
lorgaíomar a chéile
a shearc, an tAm i Láthair
ag eiteallaigh anois is choíche

in the garden
of Chang Tsu’s mind
we looked for one another
beloved, the fluttering
of the Now as always

Odilon Redon, The Druidess - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, The Druidess.
Photograph: Public Domain

lig dom breathnú
inár ndiaidh tríotsa
is amach romhainn
is sa mhóimint seo
is tusa ann

let me look with You
into the past
into the future
into this moment
that is You

Odilon Redon, Andromeda - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Andromeda.
Photograph: Public Domain

im’ bhrionglóidí
seo chugam as réaltbhuíonta thú
crithloinnir ríméadach
dá bhféadfainn frídín díot
a phéinteáil anocht

You visit me in dreams
emerging from constellations
shimmering in ecstasy
if only I could paint
a fraction of You tonight

Odilon Redon, Closed Eyes - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Closed Eyes.
Photograph: Public Domain

is tú dúchas
na mbláthanna go léir
is tú mo shaol
ag dúiseacht
peiteal ar pheiteal ar pheiteal

You are
what every flower is inside
You are the awakening
of my life
petal by petal by petal

Odilon Redon, Mystical Conversation - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Mystical Conversation.
Photograph: Public Domain

an mbíonn comhrá idir réaltaí
an aithníonn tonnta na mara
a chéile
cad is féidir a rá
nach eol duit cheana féin

do stars converse
do waves of the sea
recognize one another
what can I tell You
that You already do not know

Odilon Redon, Still Life: The Dream - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Still Life: The Dream.
Photograph: Public Domain

cá ngabham anois
an domhan ar bharr lasrach
á leá os ár gcomhair
san fholús sin
ba chliabhán dúinn fadó

where is there left to go
a world in flames
see, it fades before our eyes
melts into the nothingness
that cradled our beginning

Odilon Redon, Two Young Girls Among Flowers - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Two Young Girls Among Flowers.
Photograph: Public Domain

níor fhágamar riamh gairdín Dé
istigh ionainn atá
ceansaigh beach mhallaithe
na smaointe
is—féach!—tá sé ann

we never left god’s garden
it lies within us
still the maddening bee
of thought
and—look!—it is there

Odilon Redon, Buddha Walking Among the Flowers - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Buddha Walking Among the Flowers.
Photograph: Public Domain

siúil leis an mBúda
i measc na mbláth
oidí dósan is dúinne
a gcumhracht is a ndath
a meath milis gach nóiméad

walk with the Buddha
among flowers
his teachers and ours
their perfume and all their hues
moments of sweet decay

Odilon Redon, Head of a Young Woman in Profile - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Head of a Young Woman in Profile.
Photograph: Public Domain

bhí an uile ní
i súil mo ghrása
ó thús ama
d’fhéadfadh fíorghrá bheith ag bláthú
leis na cianta gan fhios dúinn

in my beloved’s eye
was all of creation
since the beginning of time
true love takes aeons

Odilon Redon, Beatrice - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Beatrice.
Photograph: Public Domain

greanadh as tost thú
is leáigh arís i dtost
cá bhfuilir anois
i measc chama an ime
is sailchuacha

from silence You were carved
and melted into silence
where are You now
among buttercups
and primroses

Odilon Redon, Christ - The Culturium
Odilon Redon, Christ.
Photograph: Public Domain

do phóg
tost
an Bhúda
do bharróg
tost Chríost

Your kiss
the silence
of the Buddha
Your embrace
the silence of Christ

Post Notes

  • Gabriel Rosenstock’s Amazon page
  • Gabriel Rosenstock’s blog
  • Masood Hussain & Gabriel Rosenstock: Mahatma
  • Kon Markogiannis, Gabriel Rosenstock & Sarah Thilykou: Angelic Flights
  • Debiprasad Mukherjee & Gabriel Rosenstock: Last Stop Before Salvation
  • Gabriel Rosenstock & Debiprasad Mukherjee: Mural World
  • Gabriel Rosenstock & Ron Rosenstock: Haiku Enlightenment
  • Nicholas Roerich: Beautiful Unity
  • Kahlil Gibran: Poet, Painter, Prophet
  • Wassily Kandinsky: Concerning the Spiritual in Art

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Written by Gabriel Rosenstock · Categorized: Literature, Visual Arts · Tagged: every night i send you flowers, french, gabriel rosenstock, guest post, irish, odilon redon, painting, poetry

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