Weekly Photo Challenge: Transient

/ taphian

Life is a transient area to death. Only love remains forever.

Tempus fugit – amor manet  somebody had written on a tombstone which is Latin and means time is transient but love stays.

I was overwhelmed by a tombstone showing a young woman mourning. It was made so truthfully and beautifully, showing details like a soft wisp of hair peeping out under a shawl, a vague Mona Lisa smile cut out of the faint reddish marble, a glorious fall of the folds, a noble nose, well-formed lips.. Something drew me to her. I had to touch her to feel if she was still living. I thought about a Greek tale of a young man who fell in love with a statue. At this moment I could understand him. I let my hands caress her face softly and I was moved, even though her cheeks were so cold. A tear dripped down, but it was mine.

Life is transient, enjoy every day as if it was your last.

Media vita in morte sumus : In the middle of life we are in death.

In memory of my father Dionyssios. I love you.

33 thoughts on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Transient”

  1. Your beautiful tribute reminded me of a short poem by Rilke (Closing Piece from The Book of Images):

    Death is great.
    We are but mouths
    for his laughter.
    When we see ourselves in the middle of life,
    he dares to weep
    in the middle of us.

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    • Hello James, thank you so much for your kind words which I always appreciate very much. You are right about the poem of Rilke and I must admit that I love this one in German but never found a good English translation. Now I found yours and I really think it’s perfect and wonderful. Thank you so much. Have a nice day, regards Mitza

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  3. Dear Mitza, I traced back your insightful thoughts on death in the midst of life to the same Rilke poem, as your follower James has done above. I wonder if you thought of this magnificent poem, as you were writing your post ‘Transient’. I also found out that we have one more thing in common apart from tracing our ancestry back to Pomerania.and our penchant to see things around us through romantic eyes. It is seeking the meaning of life in an increasing material world, even if it means to find solace among tombstones. Psalm 90 verse 10 says: Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.Greetings from beautiful British Columbia, Canada!

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    • Thanks a lot, dear Peter, for taking your time to think about my words. I was really thinking about this beautiful poem from Rilke, but as I wrote to James Burnham, who translates his poems in a wonderful way, I didn’t like the translations. Your thoughts are really true and it’s always good to find likeminded people in the world. Have a nice day, regards Mitza

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  4. Interesting post Mitza. Contemplating life and death is a good thing as we learn to value what we have and see what is (and what is not) important in life.
    So i wish you lots of inspiration and insight!

    Best wishes, Pieter

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  7. Wonderful tribute to your father, Mitza! Life is transient… unless one is wise enough to see beyond the illusion.

    from the poetry of Walt Whitman:

    Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,
    No birth, identity, form—no object of the world.
    Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;
    Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
    Ample are time and space—ample the fields of Nature.
    The body, sluggish, aged, cold—the embers left from earlier fires,
    The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again;
    The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual;
    To frozen clods ever the spring’s invisible law returns,
    With grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.

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    • Thank you so much for your kind words, Tom, which I really appreciate. Evrybody will be forgotten except the ones we still love. That’s important for me. Have a nice day, regards Mitza

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