If thou of fortune be bereft,
And in thy store there be but left,
Two loaves, sell one, and with the dole,
Buy Hyacinths to feed thy soul
~Muslih-uddin Sadi
My mother loved hyacinths. She said it reminded her of when she was a girl. I never asked her what it made her think of. I imagined that it was the first flower a boy ever gave her, picked carefully from his Mother's flower bed. Maybe it reminded her how she would lie in the dead leaves beside the fragrant clumps and inhale the sweetness til she felt giddy. I will never know for sure what she meant, and she did not seem to want to elaborate. Now the hyacinths just remind me of her.
My mother loved hyacinths. She said it reminded her of when she was a girl. I never asked her what it made her think of. I imagined that it was the first flower a boy ever gave her, picked carefully from his Mother's flower bed. Maybe it reminded her how she would lie in the dead leaves beside the fragrant clumps and inhale the sweetness til she felt giddy. I will never know for sure what she meant, and she did not seem to want to elaborate. Now the hyacinths just remind me of her.
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