An oceanic hymn. Warm skin caressed by iodine and seawater swirled with seaweed and a whisper of seaspray roses and beach plums on a summery breeze of honeysuckle, nardo, and champaca blossom.
" Love came at last
and we entered paradise
We slid like fish
beneath the surface of the water
We saw the pearls of the sea
and were moonstruck..."
- Nizar Qabbani
Translated from Arabic by Paul Weinfield
Art: The Birth of Venus by Henry Courtney Selous, 1852