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Poetry from the Garden - A Passage from the Diary of Anaïs Nin part 4

06:27 Ramble / Discussion Jan 13, 2021 8 comments 551 340

Download (9 MB, MP3)

This time I bent the rules a little and chose a passage from the diary of writer (and poet) Anaïs Nin, who was famously involved in a love triangle with Henry Miller and his wife June.

I liked this passage not only for the beauty of the language, but also because it captured a specific, fleeting emotion we all know so well - being overwhelmed by beauty.

Here's the passage if you'd like to read along


Other audios in series Poetry from the Garden

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  • MadWithLust on 2021-01-28 18:29:59 (UTC)

    I love this diary entry's capturing of the moment of "swoon" but it's so strange to also capture the moment of falling back to earth in the same entry. It's a universal feeling but I was surprised that it was Anais swooning for June in that way. I don't know the history but I just assumed it was the girls fighting over Henry in this triangle. But just the way she describes that feeling of being totally head over heels, mesmerized, captivated, like under a siren's call, it's such a perfect description of love at first sight!

    But then she immediately describes all her flaws of how she doesn't meet up to her ideals...maybe out of jealousy? I think that's what I missing with me coming from a boy meets girl perspective vs. a girl meets girl.

    But I definitely love the last line: "because if I love you it means we share the same fantasies, the same madnesses" Just...WOW. Very powerful!

    • A Eve on 2021-01-30 22:29:56 (UTC)

      That line struck me too!

  • CharlieRomeoLima on 2021-01-15 00:58:38 (UTC) (edited)

    I've experienced the feeling of being swept away by a person's physical beauty when I at one time perused camgirls years ago, just to satisfy my curiosity about this Internet phenomenon. Sometimes it would endure for awhile (but never long b/c any perceived connection is superficial fantasy), other times it would be immediately dispelled by something as trivial as her accent as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, almost like how Anaïs Nin describes in her passage.

    These literary descriptions of emotions we all feel at some point in our lives are the threads that bind us together across time and space through our common experience of the human condition, & this is why writing is often well worth the effort of preserving for posterity. With this in mind, the loss of the poetry of Sappho, most of the dramas of Aeschylus, the burning of the Library of Alexandria or the wholesale destruction of Maya codices by Spanish missionaries to name but a few are tragic affairs indeed.

    • A Eve on 2021-01-18 16:27:31 (UTC)

      So true, I can't even imagine how much richness was lost...

  • TheGreek on 2021-01-14 14:35:18 (UTC)

    I really love your series "Poetry from the Garden". It is so stimulating for my spirit. I also recommend you to read this poem of C. P. Cavafy, "Ithaca" (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51296/ithaka-56d22eef917ec). It is a very well known poem of the Greek poet from Alexandria of Egypt, which was red by Sean Connery (https://youtu.be/sl3uKXU6VLI). I'm not sure about the copyright of the English translation though.

    • A Eve on 2021-01-18 16:26:46 (UTC)

      I'll take a look, thank you!

  • Benny on 2021-01-14 07:25:57 (UTC)

    Eve , you inspired me to look more into Anaïs Nin's life , I found that today is the 44th anniversary of her death . You reading this passage from her diary is like a small tribute to her life . I thank you for this 🙏🏻

    • A Eve on 2021-01-18 16:26:16 (UTC)

      That is so cool, I didn't know that! I'm so happy to have this happy accident!