Friday, August 21, 2015

Carpe Diem #802 Blue Nile


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are on our way to the end of this month and are sailing on the Nile in our papyrus boat towards the source of The Nile. It has been an adventure already and it will become (I hope) even better.
I am already busy with preparing our new list of prompts for September in which I hope to tell you more about the constellations and their mythological meaning and background. I have decided to give this new month of CDHK also a title. Because of our journey through the universe I have decided to give this new month the title "A Space Odyssey" after that well known song of David Bowie.

Our New CDHK Logo for September 2015

Ok ... back to the present, the future can wait. Today we have the first of three (regular) prompts in which we will discover why The Nile has three names, Blue Nile, Yellow Nile and White Nile. And the first is Blue Nile. I have asked myself why this name, Blue Nile, is given to The Nile in Ethiopia.

The Blue Nile, ʿAbbay but pronounced Abbai’ is originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river becomes one of the two major tributaries of the Nile. The upper course of the river is called the Abbay in Ethiopia, where many regard it as holy. Some Ethiopians have long identified the Blue Nile as the River Gihon mentioned as flowing out of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 and "encircling the entire land of Cush".
The Blue Nile is so-called because during flood times, the water current is so high that the river turns almost black (in the local Sudanese language, the word for black is also used for the color blue).

Credits: Blue Nile Falls
the sound of thunder
resonates through the canyon
Blue Nile Falls


© Chèvrefeuille

What an idea that this part of  The Nile is seen as the river Gihon which once was flowing out of the Garden of Eden. It's possible because their have been scientifical projects that stated that the Garden of Eden once was somewhere in Ethiopia. Isn't that great. We are sailing over the river that once was flowing through the Garden of Eden. This must be a mystical experience.

vague images
I feel the Garden of Eden
sailing The Nile


© Chèvrefeuille

Awesome! I hope you did like this "short" episode and that it will inspire you to write an all new haiku or tanka to share with us all here at CDHK.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 24th at noon (CET) I will try to publish our new episode, Lake Tana, later on.


2 comments:

  1. Your two haiku set quite the high mark for all of us!

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  2. Your haiku had a big impact on me, and I built a haibun around it - true story. One of your best, my friend.

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