Roses

The rose inspiration of countless troubadours, painters, sculptors, poets, and musicians is also that of my daughter-in-law and herself an outstanding chef, Sonia Ezgulian, whom I admire and who composed for me an ode to the rose in ten sonnets filled with colors and flavors. Their names sound of children’s tales : Snow Fairy, Thigh of an Emotional Nymph, Rendez-Vous, Divine Angel, Garland of Love, or Beautiful Isis.They pay homage to beautiful women or celebrities who succumbed to these women’s graces… They posses unctuous fragrances, soft and intense colors, a languishing flesh, elegance, a secret. All are ephemeral, yet all are eternal. Since the dawn of time the fossils of églantines or sweet briars – the ancestor of our modern rose bushes – found in Colorado attest to this fact. The rose has been admired by humankind and stamped its seal on the experienced by our species. So many examples ! An armful of roses decorating Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus, Cleopatra reclining on a bed of rose petals, slaves in the Roman Empire covering themselves in roses to proclaim their freedom, an angel offering a bouquet of roses to St. Dorothy – the patron saint of florists – to ease her martyrdom, the Duke of Orleans founding the Order of the Rose to defend the chivalrous honor of gentlewomen.