Bezmelnitsin's Gallery :: Denis Bezmelnitsin : "Devotion to the Garden"

Denis Bezmelnitsin

Devotion to the Garden
A stone yellow said to me,
"There was a garden some not far..."
Now on this spot what be?
- Only the vowel [a:]...

Then I saw a causeway lorn...
Got abruptly cut the string,
What is that in shadow yon?
- A deep ravine...

Then a fence I touch, a cry,
"In this garden yet we had..."
Ravens from above repine,
"How to forgive, forget?"

On the ground lying door
Lost the colour, sign...
Where was the garden, lo -
Now a bitter rhyme...

Ravens angry I have joined
Omen ill to give...
What shall fill on hill the void?
- Novelty massíve...

Raven jetty as rebuke
'Mid the shambles sate,
"Here was our garden, look!
Nothing value they!"

In the heap aloof the book
From the past hath been...
- On the proper spot it put
Your devotion in!

Yellow, yellow book it was -
"What Is to Be Done?"¹
Raven elder said, "A loss
Will avoid the one:"

إذا عم الفساد البر والبحر فارحل
عن الأرض واجعل همتك سماوية
علوية مخافة الهلاك

When corruption pervaded the land
and the sea, away from the earth!
Make the goal of your desire
heavenly, lofty. Beware of doom!
Ibn 'Arabi

April 2025

1 Nikolay Chernyshevsky, What Is to Be Done?
Что делать?

Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Interpretations
كتاب التراجم

Translation from Arabic
by Denis Bezmelnitsin