«Πιστεύω στην υγρασία της νύχτας, στα αγάλματα που ταξιδεύουν μέρα νύχτα μες σε δαπανηρές συσκευασίες και στα κλειστά παράθυρα εργοστασίων που απεργούν. Πιστεύω στη λιτανεία των αυτοκινήτων, στα νευρικά σφυρίγματα ενός εγκαταλειμμένου αστυφύλακα και στην οσμή από σελίδες άκοπες των σχολικών βιβλίων. Πιστεύω στις ποιητικές ανθολογίες, στις διαφημίσεις ταυρομαχιών του '35 και στα σημάδια του κορμιού σου που φανερώνουν έρωτα. Τέλος, πιστεύω στο θάνατο της μνήμης και στην ανάσταση των επιθυμιών εν μέσω ρόδων, γιασεμιών και υακίνθων. Και τούτο εγένετο, Αμήν».
"I believe in the humidity of the night, the statues traveling day and night amid costly packaging and the closed windows of factories on strike. I believe in the procession of cars, the nervous whistling of a lonesome constable and the smell of uncut pages in textbooks. I believe in poetry anthologies, bullfight ads of '35 and the signs on your body revealing love. Finally, I believe in memory's death and the resurrection of desire amid roses, jasmine and hyacinths. And this was done, Amen. "
"The jasmine at your door, my jasmine, oh and I came to prune it, my little bird. And your mother thought, my Yasemin, that I came to take you away.
The black eyes, which are sweet, my Yasemin. Oh, the brows, which are long, my little bird. Made me forsake ~my Yasemin~ oh, my mother's milk, my little bird."
Thus runs this Cypriot folk song which plays with the double entendre of the word jasmine: the wonderful trellis that grows upon doors and windows of course, but also the traditional Eastern Mediterranean women's name, Yasmin/Yasemin (which means of course Jasmine). So the poet is in turn speaking of the flower and of the woman, the two becoming one and the same...
Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico perform the traditional Cypriot folk song The Jasmin from the album "Mediterranea: Songs Of The Mediterranean" (1998) Translation author's own.
One of the most nostalgic perfume commercials I always remember with a pang of melancholy in my heart is the one for Cacharel's fragrance Loulou from 1988. Inspired as it was (along with the perfume itself) by Louise Brooks and her ethereal, yet also devilish character in Pabst's Pandora's Box and the cryptic message of a knowing wink beneath a heavy dark fringe it produced a soft spot for every aspiring coquette aged very, very young-ish. The scent caressed every nook and cranny with its voluptuous yet somehow innocent, powdery sweet aura: the seduction of a creature this side of Lilith. And it didn't help that the haunting melody echoed in my ears for years as one of the most touching elegies I have heard to the colour blue in all its literal and figurative permutations... My joy on finding it (even in its Italian version), after all these years thanks to the wonders of technology, has revealed that its pearly veneer hasn't lost its lustre in my mind and it still produces a sigh of delightful and wistful reminiscence in me, like a dog who is sighing, her paws tucked in and her ears down at the completion of a tender, sad patting as if to part forever.
And here is the divine soundtrack to the above commercial in its full glory: "Pavane, Opus 50" in F-sharp minor by Gabriel Fauré, set to images of impressionistic paintings by Monet.
Do you have a perfume that produces such synaesthetic responses in you? I'd be interested to hear.
Loulou clip originally uploaded by Shescom on Youtube. Pavane clip uploaded by andrewgrummanJC on Youtube.
Under the weather with the flu (which seems to strike at the Ides of March!). So, a little open poll for you in accompaniment to one of my most favourite clips.
Which scent would you choose as a background for this?
I simply love everything about it: So Beaudelairesque!
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by Nine Inch Nails, from the soundtrack of 
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