BUTTERFLIES / БАБОЧКИ

Butterflies may look for an ordinary eye something trivial and insignificant, but in a deeper view of the soul they are truly unique beings. So dainty and delicate, so graceful and elegant, having such amazing colours and designs! Moreover, they are winged creatures and can fly, can flitter freely, as if dancing with all their beauty in the breezes, so airy and light. Wings are a special symbol: they embody the age-long dream of humanity of flight which in a deeper truth is the dream of freedom, of absolute liberty with no bonds or limits. So for the soul’s eyes the airy and marvelous freely flittering butterflies appear the symbol of the soul’s freedom, of its free termless flight with no care or trouble in the eternal summer of light and beauty and happiness and liberty, the all-blissful and all-free beings of paradise. They as if embody all these priceless paradisal qualities for which the soul in us yearns since the beginning of Time.
It is in this deeper view that many of the photographs of butterflies are presented here. Many photo-poetic works also attempt to reveal another states and dimensions of consciousness and being that may exist unnoticed near us and parallel with us — or in our own microcosm — or, perhaps, our macrocosm? — for in a deeper view they prove to be one, and this All-Oneness of Being is the main theme of my creativity. It is presented through the insights into some inner realities of the World-Being in the symbolic World of Butterflies. Please, read the poems below the photos.

Kallima Butterfly - A Magic Transformation (2) or On the Rainbow Wings / Бабочка каллима - Магическое превращение (2) или На радужных крылах

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Kallima Butterfly - A Magic Transformation (2) or On the Rainbow Wings / Бабочка каллима - Магическое превращение (2) или На радужных крылах

Описание и стихотворение к фото на русском см. ниже.
Kallima inachus (Boisduval, 1846), the Nymphalidae family. Eng. Himalayan Orange Oakleaf, Dry Leaf, Dead Leaf. A huge (palm-size) and extremely beautiful butterfly. A sample of amazing mimicry: with its wings folded it looks exactly like a dry leaf (see the previous photo), while with the wings opened proves the rainbow-winged divine marvel! ...
Photo location: Foothills of Himalayas (surroundings of Rishikesh, India), on the Darshan 24.11.11
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The Rainbow Mystery

It lingers on the branches’ bed
Ablaze upon the drab leaves dead—
But shut its wings, you won’t belive!—
‘Twas beauty, now a dry dead leaf!

Oh, what an actor! What a play!
Now a drab leaf, now colours gay!—
A lifeless leaf’s disguise just screens
The beauty of the rainbow wings!

This is our world: the earthly eyes
See everywhere just clay’s disguise—
Without’s clay; within it — hey!—
The soul rainbow-winged at play!

Ritam
26.12.11

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Гималайская нимфалида Kallima inachus (Boisduval, 1846), сем. Нимфалиды. Англ. «гималайский дубовый лист оранжевый», «сухой лист», «мертвый лист». Красивейшая и очень большая бабочка: размах крыльев — с ладонь. Пример удивительной мимикрии: со сложенными крыльями бабочка выглядит в точности как сухой лист (см. соседнее фото). А с раскрытыми — вдруг превращается в божественное радужнокрылое чудо!..
Место съемки: Предгорья Гималаев (окрестности Ришикеша, Индия), в день Даршана 24.11.11

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Радужная тайна

Она застыла на ветвях,
Блистая на сухих листах…
Но схлопнет крылья — боже мой! —
Была краса — стал лист сухой!..

Что за игра! Каков артист!
То красок блеск, то блеклый лист! —
Под видом мертвого листа —
Крылатых радуг красота!..

Таков наш мир: в земных глазах
Повсюду — только тлен и прах…
Снаружи прах… Внутри же — ах! —
Душа на радужных крылах!

Ритам
26.12.11, Гатчина