Image of the Day : Luxor

by Paulo Coelho on December 3, 2008

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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

cristina December 4, 2008 at 10:10 am

I Agree with Adina.
Anyway, this picture reminds me of the “exercise of shadows” in “The Pilgrimage”.
Light and shadow, so definitely separated in this picture, belong to the same object.
PS. the exercise of shadow works! (I tried to practise it and had good results)
have a nice day.

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marie-christine December 4, 2008 at 9:05 am

Temple

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Alexandra December 4, 2008 at 8:57 am

I have had no ocasion to visit Egypt,but love that country.For its history.

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Ahmed Wagih December 4, 2008 at 8:51 am

Luxor – part of my country – Egypt.

I see history, I see greatness, I see eminence

I see PRIDE…

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Adina December 3, 2008 at 10:11 pm

The picture sends to me the message:”There is no past, present or future”, “There is now and eternal”

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Lily December 3, 2008 at 2:47 pm

So cold, old, and far…
But strong.

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Savita Vega December 3, 2008 at 2:47 pm

A haunting image. Beautiful. Almost like I can see someone standing there on that hill, just behind the stone statue and in front of the those two tall date palms – a figure that is there and yet is not there. Could it be a ghost? Of you? Or of me? Or both?

The poem, by Conrad Aiken, that I posted in the section about “The Intelligent Servant” is actually an excerpt from a long poem titled “Preludes for Memnon.” Another section of this same poem reads:

When you come back from Memnon, when you come
Into the shadow, the green land of evening,
And hear the leaves above you, and the water
Falling, falling, in fountains;
When you remember Memnon, and the sand,
The stone lips crying to the desert, the stone eyes
Red with the daybreak not yet seen by you;

When you shake out the desert from your shoes
And laugh amongst you, and are refreshed,
And go about your business, now secure
Against the mockery of the all-changing moon;
And most of all, oh sly ones, when you sell
So dearly to the poor your grains of wisdom,
Or barter to the ignorant your belief;

Oh think of this belief and think it evil,
Evil for you because you heard it only
From a stone god whose prophecies you mocked;
Evil for them because their hunger buys it;
Evil for both of you, poor pitiful slaves,
Who had no heart, when chaos came again,
Who had no love, to make the chaos bright.

Go back again, and find the divine dark;
Seal up your eyes once more, and be as tombs;
See that yourselves shall be as Memnon was.
Then, if you have the strength to curse the darkness,
And praise a world of light, remember Memnon -
Stone feet in sand, stone eyes, stone heart, stone lips,
Who sang the day before the daybreak came.

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THELMA December 3, 2008 at 2:32 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orIZuoyKgFI&feature=related
Egypt and Luxor are …waiting for us..
Love,
Thelma

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