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The water lily
Le nénuphar - زنبق الماء
Description
The water lily is a graceful aquatic plant known for its large, floating leaves that form a green canopy across the water’s surface, offering a safe haven for fish and frogs. Its delicate blooms—typically white, pink, or yellow—only open in sunlight and sometimes release a subtle fragrance. Blooming from spring through autumn, the water lily is easy to cultivate and plays a vital role in maintaining the health of aquatic ecosystems by oxygenating the water and curbing algae growth.
Long regarded as a symbol of purity and tranquility, the water lily has inspired countless works of art and poetry—Charles Corm among them, who dedicated two poems to this elegant flower.
The garden pond, where the water lilies bloom, was created in the late 1930s when the former car assembly sheds were replaced with landscaped greenery. If you look closely, you may even catch a glimpse of the goldfish that now call it home.
Poem
The Sacred Flower
(The Indian Lotus)
You can’t quite make out the bottom of the swamp,
Yet something obscure is happening;
The gestation of cells
Is busy creating life.
In this viscous slime, a secret partnership
Accomplishes a miracle:
Plants and countless creatures are reaching for the surface
And amongst them is the beautiful water lily.
From the putrid depths where all is still
Its curved reddish stem deftly shoots forth
Eager to escape the horrid black bed of its conception.
Like a soul in prayer
It has freed itself from the mud’s heavy shadow
Offering the skies an immaculate kiss of light!
Published in La Petite Cosmogonie Sentimentale, Éditions de la Revue Phénicienne, 2004
An Exemplary Symbol
A flamboyant expression of inner life,
The Lotus flower, revered across India
Has become for its people a sacred symbol;
An image of the Buddha.
Growing on the shores of lakes,
In the dark shallows of the mud,
It buds onto the surface
Blooming with happiness.
Nothing seems to disturb its delight:
Its gleaming white chalice,
Takes pleasure in reflecting the day’s colors.
Thus, born of silt, our hearts are called
To pass through life’s dark moments,
Only to be revived by the power of Light!
Published in La Planète Exaltée, Éditions de la Revue Phénicienne, 2004.
