Tag: Nature

Sulphur Baths of Tbilisi, “The Place of Warmth”

The sad thing about being a Filipino in colder climes is that you’ve still got to have that daily bath no matter how cold it is outside. 😆 But this was one long bath that I could not complain about and which I truly enjoyed.

Many conquerors including Tamerlane, and Genghis Khan’s son, Chagatai, have bathed in these waters. And these steaming domes with beautifully-tiled hammams underneath them have become landmarks of Old Tiflis. 

“I have never encountered anything more luxurious than these Tbilisi baths, neither in Russia nor in Turkey,” Pushkin declared during his visit in 1829. Chekov and Dumas have also written about their experiences here, although it was through Ali & Nino, the most well-loved novel of the Caucasus, where I learned of how King Vakhtang Gorgasali discovered these sulphuric hot springs while hunting. 

Being here in late autumn and already feeling the season giving in to winter, I can understand why the 5th century king was moved to transfer his capital where the hot springs are and call it “the place of warmth” — Tpili in Old Georgian, Tiflis to the Persians, or Tbilisi.

To experience these baths is to experience Tbilisi.

Tarjei Vesaas: The Hills Reply

“Because when I read, I don’t really read; I pop a beautiful sentence into my mouth and suck it like a fruit drop, or sip it like a liquer until the thought dissolves in me like alcohol, infusing brain and heart and coursing on through the veins to the root of each blood vessel.” This is how Bohumil Hrabal’s Haňta reads — or how he doesn’t really read.

This is how I read, or how I did not really read, The Hills Reply by Tarjei Vesaas. I do not think there is any other way to read, or to not really read, this book.

What is this book? I can say, “A collection of sixteen short pieces of literature.” Or I can also say, “A lyrical poem, two hundred and seventy five pages long.”

But I’d rather say: A Lispector attuned to nature. An impressionistic artwork so keenly aware of the elements, of the light in different times of the day, and of its sounds and its silences. A swan song of sheer beauty that leaves you quiet and asks your heart, for the time being, to dwell inside its pages… a heart so full, so open, it breaks.