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ODE TO CLOTHES

God didn’t make humans naked,
God created them with clothes.
With underwear, a dress, trousers, socks . . .
A human being is human because of clothes . . .
When he’s dressed, he thinks and expresses himself differently,
Smiles differently, loves his neighbour differently,
Believes in himself, feels himself.
Only a clothed human being keeps his hands off clothing,
Only a clothed human being paints a naked one,
Only a clothed human being sings ‘C’inc’q’aro’ or dances ‘Khorumi’.
God made human beings with hats and shoes,
Although he also made them with Pioneers’ cravats, scarves and neckties.
A clothed man gets infatuated with a woman,
Gives flowers as a present to a clothed woman and kisses her for the first time . . .
And a woman falls in love with a clothed man . . .
And, in general, if love does exist,
It is because, when he was creating humans,
God had a wardrobe ready for them.
In the wardrobe was a headscarf for the woman,
There was a veil,
There was a corset.
For the man – a surplice, a pea jacket and a tunic,
For one man shirt to be worn on the Cross . . .
God loves man both clothed and naked,
But he prefers him clothed.
God is our first true designer . . .
Once upon a time a learned man got into the bath
And discovered a law of the universe,
But that was just once.
Afterwards clothed scientists have attained new and deeper secrets of the universe . . .
Electricity, television, aviation, or the internet
Were invented by someone clothed.
Clothes are genius!
Clothes write masterpieces – with a goose quill or a computer.
Clothes write holy books.
Clothes are saints,
Clothes are aesthetes,
Clothes are wiser than the wise . . .
Every single one has his particular talent
For example, a toga is an orator, a philosopher;
A wig is a scholar or musician,
A T-shirt is a footballer, handball player or basketball player.
A man puts on a helmet
Over his head and ascends into heaven
(With sombreros – God had, apparently,
Not just hats and capes in the wardrobe, but helmets too) . . . 
Were this not so, man could never
Have placed the soles of his bare feet on the moon . . .
Peoples, first put on clothes and hats, and then rush for the cosmos . . .
First put on clothes and hats, and then let the devil take you –
Go down the mine shafts, too . . .
In the beginning . . .
I think in the beginning there were clothes,
Which He made, after
A man-clothes crosses himself,
Prayers and does namaz.
A man-clothes drinks wine
With his men-clothes friends
And converses with them about all kinds of men-clothes things . . .
A man-clothes ploughs the earth and reaps the harvest . . .
Look kindly on the dressed and behatted man, God on high!
With his shorts, his jeans, his dinner jacket, bless him!
Bless him with his slippers,
When he quietly potters about the house
Seeing to the family comforts!
Bless his braces, his briefs and long-johns.
Bless his swimming costume, too,
Because on the very same second day
By Your own great wish
You created the sea as well as the land . . .
And if this is so, bless all second-hand clothes shops,
All own-brand outlets with their sales!
Bless every tailor, cobbler, modeller.
Bless the hand of the woman who devotedly
Stitched Jesus’s shirt.
Bless, o God, clothes factories!
Bless them, for humans are human by their clothes . . .
Man lives, suffers, labours and loves by clothes,
And when he departs for a better world,
Clothes preserve him for a little longer . . .
Like a hero, he is sacrificed to the frenzied attacks of the worms . . .

God almighty, it is good, too,
That you didn’t create man naked,
Good that you made him clothed and behatted.