vendredi 20 juillet 2012

The Hermessence Haïkus



The Jardins Albert-Kahn in Boulogne-Billancourt is a magical enclosure just off Paris where the banker Albert Kahn (1860-1940), who dedicated part of his colossal fortune to foundations fostering world peace, created a series of gardens in different styles conjuring his favorite landscapes.
It is, naturally, the Japanese garden that Hermès chose as the setting of a lovely, poetic tribute to the Hermessence collection.
Jean-Claude Ellena, who is particularly sensitive to Japanese esthetics, has long called this series his “haikus”: in Japan, he met with haiku masters who composed poems inspired by the Hermessences, which in turn inspired installations set in the Albert-Kahn garden.
Purple-painted stones marked an itinerary along which were erected a series of ten little “shrines”: at each stop, a Hermès ribbon sprayed with one of the Hermessences was tied to a stylized fan. The perfumes mingled with the delicate vegetal scents of the garden in the moist, warm air of early summer…

Paprika Brasil
 A towering tree
Sets its blossoms aquiver
Sweet cool of the night

Kaï Hasegawa


Osmanthe Yunnan 
 Apricot blossom
Making a hairpin in jade
And the evening star

Dhugal Lindsay


Poivre Samarcande
 Blessed cool of evening!
We live on this sparkling planet:
Land of oases

Shugyô Takaha


Brin de Réglisse
One summer’s evening
A swift gust brings out the blow
Of the evening star

Hadoka Hayuzumi


 Multicoloured shells
Washed up onto the beach
Long spring afternoon

Minoru Ozawa


 Every time she meets
A man, she then gives to him
Her iris perfume!

Teiko Inahata


Ambre Narguilé
 Carthage, one evening
Where a cat narrows his eyes.
And breathes in the moon.

Seegan Mabesoone


Vétiver Tonka
 And away it flows,
Robbing the sun’s bright light
Such is the source!

Michiko Kaï


Santal Massoia

Let them come to me,
Poetry and your love and…
That doe on the hill!

Saki Kôno



Rose Ikebana
 I nibble your ear
Which is so like a soft rose
Ah, I smell roses!

Yûmu Yamaguchi

7 commentaires:

  1. I wish I were better equipped to take pictures -- these are from my iPhone. The event was really lovely and poetic. Though for some reason I missed the installation inspired by Santal Massoia.

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  2. Let them come to me,
    Poetry and your love and…
    That doe on the hill!

    Saki Kôno

    Who needs a visual
    It's absolutely right
    One image less

    Portia x

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  3. To-con-vey one's mood
    in sev-en-teen syll-able-s
    is ve-ry dif-fic
    John Cooper Clarke

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  4. Portia, you're right, the poems don't need images... but I'm mad at myself for somehow managing to miss a doe!

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  5. Chris, I guess that's why they're called "masters"!

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  6. in the depths of the apricots
    a hairpiece of jade...
    the evening star

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