Bellezza è destino

Anna, trainee attorney-at-law.

[cleanarchitectures]

“Desire, infinite desire, spring light, your eyes, the sea.”

— Juliette Drouet, from a letter to Victor Hugo written c. April 1838

[sandylamu]

Lamu Dhow Race, Kenya

[soracities]

“Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.”

— Saul Bellow, Herzog

[izvletchenie]

Dieric Bouts, The Ascension of the Elect (detail), c. 1470

[cleanarchitectures]

“I will take communion with sea water gathered from your body drop by drop”

— Nikos Kavvadias, excerpt of Fata Morgana 

[bluebeardsbride-archive]

“A rose is a rose is a rose, but not to the perfumer. Russian rose is softer, Indian thinner, Egyptian richer, Turkish sweeter, Bulgarian rounder, Moroccan brighter. Jasmine sambac is sharp, while grandiflorum jasmine is more full-bodied. Deepgreen Tasmanian boronia has a rich herbal scent, whereas the bright orange kind has a sweet-tart citrusy odor. Spanish, Tunisian, and French orange flower absolute all vary in sweetness and depth.”

—

Mandy Aftel, Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume

[echiromani]

Venice.

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

“Sweeter than the early morning in summer.”

— Ernest Hemingway, from “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” written c. 1940

[manyother]

Claudia Cardinale, Paris.

The photo was taken by photographer Claude Azoulay in Paris in 1961, when she was sitting in a cafe on Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

[poeticpicturism]

[finita--la--commedia]

“This is late afternoon: a minute of precise fragrance, a knowing I will love you, every day more, with more longing, with no answers.”

— Sara Pujol Russell, from “Thinking Late Afternoon”, translated from Spanish by Noël Valis (via finita–la–commedia)

[hersuavevoice]

"I am blind. Blinded by May. I know nothing, except that the lilacs are in bloom."

[himneska]

Photographed by Josefine Seifert for Cecilie Bahnsen ‘Encore’ Collection.

[mrsclarkkent]

“Spring days smell of blurred memories–”

— Pentti Saarikoski, tr. by Herbert Lomas, from Contemporary Finnish Poetry: “A Fortunate Time,”

[frrenzetic]

[galerienoirchic]

9/7/1959- Milan, Italy: Millionaire Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis, with opera star Maria Meneghini Callas outside the LaScala Opera House here

[finita--la--commedia]

“Today I carry even in my shadow your fragrance of spring …”

— Delmira Agustini, from “The Intruder”, translated by Alejandro Cáceres