GARDENER IN RUNDALE

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

One of the numerous transient and semiautonomous little states in European history
was Courland
(placed in the western part of current Latvia),
which existed in between 1561 and 1795
(before being gulped by the Russian Empire).

That Duchy left especially the memory of an eccentric Duke since the 18th century,
Ernst Johann von Biron,
who ordered the construction of two palaces:
one as his permanent residence
and one as his summer residence.

But history was rather ironical:
the secondary palace, in Rundale,
has remained more famous and more visited by tourists.

The Rundale Palace (which I visited in July 2015)
has also a fascinating garden,
where I felt the joy of a teenager,
or rather of a young disciple of Von Biron.

That because I found out there a stunning vegetal amphitheatre,
which inspired me to write a dramatic astropoetic dialogue:

Gardener von Biron:

My dear, you have to know that,
If the Earth and the other planets
Are travellers in the Cosmos,
You and the other people are travellers on Earth.
That’s why the Creator
Adorned the sky with stars
And the Earth with flowers.
They are related through a variable crown
Which never ever comes down.

Disciple:

So we can find the Sun’s power
In any delicate flower!