It hits with more impact in the original language. you can't help but get repetitive when you loose all the specific drama of the brushwork.

the context of this is that there is no other context. Most Lavanic poems are illustrated. because Lavanic characters are essentially pictographs, if one wants to be specific they might as well draw what is happening. Because there are no illustrations, we can assume the subject is abstract. The large character at the bottom left gives away the subject, with the dramatic waves accentuating out main character, the "beast" at the end that appears as this circular shape. circles are shorthand for some defined object, everything else is some kind of force, except for a,e,g and y type shapes, which describe a kind of middle ground between force and matter.

I hesitate to make any assertion about the meaning of this poem, because my own preconceived notions serve as the context that color the rest of the interpretation. I made it more about the creation of life, but it could be about an inorganic phenomenon, or maybe it is part of a larger poem and there is some specific context we are missing.

that said, here is my translation of the lavanic poem from the scroll above.

we saw the greater force, we saw the weaker force. as the stronger prevailed the weaker was slowed. lo the destruction of the strong is so great it stops the great force, and the destruction of the weak is so weak it prevails. Balance is achieved as soon as it is disrupted. Two equal forces are unequal together. unequal forces are equal together. something slips into the perfect harmonies, and one is above and one below.

The two that made the three that made the one that was nothing. the two that was one, the one that was three, the one that was empty. the emptiness grows, the growth empties. The emptiness moves forward and severed. those severed things defined themselves, and hollowed. they pressed against the outer world, the outer world broke them open. opened, they yet defined again. their open body shared that definition with another open body. one body, opened and closed, they released. this definition, nearly lost was caught, again and again. even into that maw, of the one that is two, the one that is three, the one that is empty did it live, by emptying itself and giving, by releasing and dividing.

lo down that river of forces does it prevail, between the spaces of battling currents. it makes it paths alongside great swells, to dwell in their open bellies. then moving again, it evades the traps of rigidity. in destructive turbulence it hides in gaps, in monotony it lies dormant.

beast of great force, you will multiply, beast of winding paths you will travel, beast entangled you will escape. there are those that are killed, separated, trapped. the killed are free, the separate are free, the trapped are free.

Lavanic irony is like lavanic beauty in the way that it is slightly different from our common cultural understanding of it. It is at once more specific and more broad. The definition of beauty in the lavanic sense implies that every material thing is beautiful, which the clever person would argue against, because if everything is beautiful then there is no contrast, and nothing is beautiful. Irony acts as that contrast.

Lavanic Irony

Consider this shape, it’s loosely fractal, which is the lavanic structure of the universe. There are areas that have more visual interest than others, and I’ve highlighted where those are for me. So the larger shapes are less beautiful, but zoom in and the medium shapes are now the large ones, and if we imagine the detail goes on infinitely, then each area is equally beautiful, and it’s our limited perspective that creates mundanity. Mundanity is not lavanic irony, the phenomenon of mundanity in a wholly beautiful world, is.

Consider the works of lavanic stories that explore irony. All lavanic narrative is ironic, because lavanism considers narrative inherently ironic. To exaggerate irony there is usually some kind of dramatic comeuppance to the hero’s actions, very often mirroring our understanding of literary irony, hence the translation. There is usually a fault in the character's limited perspective, an attempt at grasping the whole when one can only have a partial understanding. The creation of life is also a common theme, since living things have to be constantly without satisfaction, or else they would just let themselves dissolve into material beauty.

an page of illustrated story concerning Lavanic irony

I would avoid thinking of irony as opposite to beauty. It is a product of beauty. It’s described as Beauty curling around itself, like how they describe the formation of life. Life and narrative both being inherently ironic because they desire to preserve themselves. Irony is the realm where badness is made, but Irony isn’t bad. Irony is also the realm of life, and drama and intrigue.

these are four sketches that I did when I was trying to explore the concept of lavanic irony to write this. I was, and still am unsatisfied with the explanation I gave. I worry it may give the wrong impression. Like lavanic beauty, the only way to understand Irony is to experience it for oneself. It is the inherent frustration of being alive, but at the same time it can be so much more than that, and other artists have done a much better job than I have at capturing this phenomenon. Consider this explanation a start to a much longer conversation about irony.