Carpe Diem #1314 The Nightingale

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

My excuses for the late publishing of this new episode. I had a very busy day so I hadn't time to create the episode. Now I have some spare time after a busy shift at work. I think I will make it myself easy this time.

I will only give you the quatrain by Omar Khayyam which I have selected from "The Rubaiyat". No background information also. Only the quatrain ... and maybe some own thoughts about it. Let me give you the quatrain to work with (this is quatrain no. 72 by the way).

Alas, that Spring should vanish with the Rose!
That Youth's sweet-scented Manuscript should close!
The Nightingale that in the Branches sang,
Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows?

© Omar Khayyam (Tr. FitzGerald)

We have seen the Rose and Spring earlier here in one of the quatrains. This time it seems to tell us something more about the fading of time, or the fading youth. There is a verse in Isaiah that tells us something a like:

“All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth.” (Isaiah 40: 6-7)

Japanese Nightingale (image found on Pinterest)

Than we see the up-bringing of the Nightingale, a wonderful bird that we have seen very often here at CDHK. In this verse it looks like the Nightingale is an image for youth, it's said that the Nightingale is the Bird of Youth. I couldn't find a reference to that idea, but to be honest I haven't search it for a long time.

Well ... no haiku or tanka by myself this time, but I love to share with you our new CDHK logo. I like to create a specific logo for every month, but it takes to mauch time, so I have created a new logo which I will use at CDHK at the start of December 2017.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until December 5th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share.