'Oscar Wilde, in "The Nightingale and the Rose", tells the story (...) [which is a -- MdM] blushful version of Eve in Paradise. All roses had been bleached until the nightingale fixed its lovelorn look upon them. Wildly enamoured, fascinated by the exquisite beauty and excellence of the bloom, the nightingale sought to clutch the flower close to its own heart. But the guardian thorns pierced its feathered bosom and the blood spurted in vivid and everlasting colour upon what, till that moment, had been lifeless and anaemic petals. How aptly, then, the languishing suitor sings: "My love is like a red, red rose"!'
(Goor 1981:25).
Each action to be performed properly requires a proper time and place. I consider the Wohl Park a site possessive a very positive *genus loci* (Latin: 'the favourable spirit of a place') for ars amandi (Latin: 'art of love'). There we can freely sing the love song of 'Chanson d'Amour', done by Manhattan Transfer in the seventies, or the Russian-language 'Byeliye rozi' (Russian: 'White roses'; cf. the white petal variety called Pascali, Hybrid Tea, Lens '63, in the Park), which was a hit of the '90's; or highly romantic Friday evening Hebrew-language classic for the Jewish singles that goes like this:
erev shel shoshanim
netse na el habustan
mor besamin ulevona
leraglekh mivtan
(Hebrew-English translation by MdM).
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'[This is the] evening of lilies;
please, let us go to the garden;
myrrh fragrance and frankincense
are just at your feet.' |
The real Jew-E-l of Jew-Ish Biblical love poetry is *Shir Hashirim* (Hebrew: 'Song of Songs'), where love is presented in the scenario so close to nature. Take also the story of 'The Little Prince' by A. Saint-d'E'xupery, the French pilot who did not come back from a night mission flight during the WW2 some day.
The skyline is very well visible from the Park as it is located on a hill and there are not many tall buildings around. At the sunset you can easily observe from there the planet Venus, in the direction of the setting sun and above the horizon line. The Venus is also known as the Morning Star. The same name is borne by the UK Communist paper title. I am not sure whether this name or another was rendered into Latin as Lucifer, i.e. 'the one carrying light'.
Visually speaking, the most romantic time for a shiduh (Hebrew: 'Jewish marriage match') date could be the full moon as there is not enough lighting inside the Park. An evening-night date could be also a little problem because of the mosquito squad that seems to prefer a residence close to water and trees. Even though, there might be fewer or not at all biting insects like this in the Park at some colder times of the year, the water irrigation system might pose another logistic problem for a successful Jewish date. Due to daily water shortage and visitor traffic, they start the automatic irrigation of lawns by night. Undoubtedly, it is a good solution to water problems in this area; however, the 'rainy' date might not go that well for a prospective couple.
Due to the optimal natural conditions of the place like fresh water, beautiful green, and natural music of birds all around, which make people feel relaxed and concentrated, many French or Russian duels took place in a venue like the Wohl Park. (Disclaimer: no duel incitement on my part whatsoever!).
In the Freudian school of psychology, the underlying meaning of water is sexual drive. For more detailed exposition of water symbolism see books on dream interpreting by great Jewish psychologists: Sigismund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung.
Speaking of archetypical symbols. For many rose is a best attribute of love. The writers of different cultures have written millions of lines on that wonderfully rosy feeling of loving and being loved. Below, let us compare the rose imagery as in an Oriental and Western sources:
'I love you for what you are, but I love you yet more for what you are going to be.
I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals. I pray for your desires that they may be great, rather than for your satisfaction, which may be hazardously little.
A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall. The most beautiful rose is one hardly more [p. 164] than a bud wherein the pangs and ecstacies of desires are working for larger and finer growth.
Not always shall you be what you are now.
You are going forward toward something great. I am on the way with you and therefore I love you. |
*Carl Sandburg*
A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.
*Chinese Proverb*'
(Greenberg 1963:163-164)
Love clings to roses, and these tend to cling to wine or some other drink for a special occasion.
'Most of us associate wine with romance, roses and moonlight, and tender memories of youth. (...)
There are about 300 varieties of wine grapes grown around the world. Some of the most famous are the red Merlot of the Bordeaux region, Gamay of Beaujolais, and Zinfandel of California. The best-known whites are Chemin Blanc of the Loire Valley, Pinot Gris of Alsace, and German varieties Silvaner and Muller Thurgau. The Italians grow popular varieties such as Sangiovese [Italian: 'St. Jove's' -- MdM] of Chianti [there is a nice Italian cafe/ under the same name at Foksal Street in downtown Warsaw, ca five-minute walk away from the University of Warsaw -- MdM] and Nebbiolo of Piemonte. (...)
"Viticulture" is the term for growing grapes for wine. The phrase "wine tasting" is a misnomer because experts say that you cannot detect flavor while drinking wine. They treat wine with great respect and bring three senses into play -- sight, smell, and taste. (...) Wine need not be made from just grapes. It can be made from a variety of fruits such as apples, apricots, bilberry, blackberry, gooseberry, pineapple, rhubarb, prune. You can even make wine from flowers and herbs such as carnation, cowslip, dandelion, elderflower, honeysuckle, primrose, rose petals; and barley, rice, fennel, lemon thyme, sage, sycamore, ginger, honey (mead), ore vanilla. (...)
But, as the poet Ernest Dowson wrote,
*They are not long, the days of wine and roses;
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.*'
(Waysman 2000:18).
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