I was reading book in subway and came across a sentence “Every bloom stands for some quality of human nature”. At that time, the words in book became hazy to me when my thought slipped into my arduous preparation for your birthday’s gift last spring.
How can I forget the unexpected argument caused by small unintentional joke? How can I forget the painful consequences we both went through afterwards? How can I forget the anxious and restless feeling when I try to expose my real emotions to you? As usual, I found myself speechless when facing you. Moreover, I was unwilling to speak out something from the bottom of my heart that I cherished too much, even to you, even for you! I gave up until your birthday was coming, until I had a chance to celebrate it with you in person. How could I miss this chance that was very precious for 13 years?! At that stage, I didn’t expect anything in return because I eventually knew what I misinterpreted. At that stage, I had already decided to give up and hide my real feeling from you forever. As a sign to end the fantasy to myself, a wordless declaration of my love in the past three years, an effort to soothe the pains I brought to you, finally, I resorted to “the language of flowers”. I still remembered my hesitation when facing so many choices, I swayed among blue “forget-me-not”, yellow rose, yellow tulip and purple clover. Finally I chose yellow tulip made of crystal in Swarovski, representing that my hopeless love to you will never wither even without your awareness. As a cliché, I also insinuated my sentiments with the help of song’s lyrics that were mixed with apologizes, sadness, wishes…… Too many overwhelming emotions! Until now, I never asked whether you understood me totally after you received them. And, so many things have been changed since last summer that beyond my wildest dream!
I strayed from the point again! Seems recently it becomes a habit to me. Coming back the “language of flowers”, I suddenly had a whim to dig into it in the internet, find out the history, the symbolic meaning of some common flowers, for other’s convenience.
The following info is coming from different sources:
Origin:
The language of flowers is primarily a literary tradition, based on the language of flowers book in Victorian England, France, and America.
The language of flowers is based on a combination of folklore, literature, mythology, religion, and the physical characteristics of the plant.
One common misunderstanding about the language of flowers is that in the past there was one set of meanings which everyone knew. Although the inclination to associate flowers with sentiments or virtues is universal, there were many sets of meanings and significant cultural differences concerning the types of sentiments and flowers in the vocabulary. Nor was the language of flowers commonly practiced as a means of communication. There is little evidence that Victorian lovers used the language of flowers for secret communications. It has, however, been used by poets, writers, artists, and designers.
The earliest literary record of the phrase "the language of flowers" may be Christopher Smart's line in Jubilate Agno, written during the period 1759 to 1763: "For the flowers have their angels... For there is a language of flowers. For there is a sound reasoning upon all flowers. For elegant phrases are nothing but flowers."
花语幽情
