There are no fields of amaranth
Terence French
amaranth on this side of the grave" crops up several times. This is a quote
from Walter Savage Landor: "There are no fields of Amaranth on this side of
the grave, O Rhodope! that are not soon mute, however tuneful: there is no
name, with whatever emphasis of passionate love repeated, of which the echo
is not faint at last".
Walter De la Mare also uses the phrase "fields of amaranth": "Silence and
sleep like fields of amaranth lie."
Does anyone know the origin of the "fields of amaranth" part, and how far
back this goes?
Terence French
John Dean
'amarant' or 'amaranth' from Latin 'amarantus' means 'not fading,
everlasting, incorruptible' and, as such, was applied to an imaginary
flower.
Then, just to complicate things, it became associated with a *real* flower
'amarantus' (which includes Love-lies-bleeding).
Seems to have started life in its poetic 'immortal / incorruptible' sense in
the late 16th Century. Shakespeare seems to have missed it (unless he used a
really funny spelling) but Milton has it.
--
John Dean
Oxford
Terence French
Thanks for the tip.
Regards, Terence
Adrian Bailey
news:c3mncv$3mr$1...@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
> Terence French wrote:
> > In Agatha Christie's play "Verdict" the phrase "There are no fields of
> > amaranth on this side of the grave" crops up several times. This is a
> > quote from Walter Savage Landor: "There are no fields of Amaranth on
> > this side of the grave, O Rhodope! that are not soon mute, however
> > tuneful: there is no name, with whatever emphasis of passionate love
> > repeated, of which the echo is not faint at last".
> > Walter De la Mare also uses the phrase "fields of amaranth": "Silence
> > and sleep like fields of amaranth lie."
> > Does anyone know the origin of the "fields of amaranth" part, and how
> > far back this goes?
> > Terence French
>
> 'amarant' or 'amaranth' from Latin 'amarantus' means 'not fading,
> everlasting, incorruptible' and, as such, was applied to an imaginary
> flower.
> Then, just to complicate things, it became associated with a *real* flower
> 'amarantus' (which includes Love-lies-bleeding).
"It became associated with" is somewhat ambiguous. "The name was given to"
is better, imho.
Adrian
John Dean
OK. So who gave the name to the flower?
--
John Dean
Oxford
Raymond S. Wise
I just tried to find that out, without success. However, I did find the
following comment in the etymology for "amaranth" in *The Century
Dictionary* ( www.century-dictionary.com ): "The flower is so called
because when picked it does not wither." And I found the following in the
*Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé*:
From the entry "AMARANT(H)E" in the TLFi at
http://atilf.inalf.fr/tlfv3.htm
[quote]
*Étymol. ET HIST. - 1.* 1544 lat. sc. _Amarantha_ bot. « fleur de la plante
dicotylédone dont la fleur d'automne est d'un rouge pourpre » (_L'Arcadie de
Sannazar_, trad. I. Martin, 116 ro ds R. d'études Rabelaisiennes, IX, 299 :
*Amarantha* signifie non pourrissante, et se dict proprement de la fleur que
nous appelons Passeveloux)[...]
[end quote]
[my translation]
*Etymology and History - 1.* 1544 scholarly Latin _Amarantha_ botany "flower
of the dicotyledonous plant of which the autumn flower is a purplish red"
(_L'Arcadie de Sannazar_ [Sannazaro's Arcadia], translated by I. Martin
[also referred to in French sources as "Jean Martin," the "I." presumably
stands for "Iohannes"], 116 ro in Revue d'études Rabelasisiennes [Review of
Rabelaisian Studies], IX, 299 : *Amarantha* means no decaying, and is
properly said of the flower which we call Passeveloux [ = "cockscomb" ).
[end of translation]
I don't know the meaning of "ro" in the above.
--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com
Isabelle Cecchini
[...]
> [my translation]
>
> *Etymology and History - 1.* 1544 scholarly Latin _Amarantha_ botany
> "flower of the dicotyledonous plant of which the autumn flower is a
> purplish red" (_L'Arcadie de Sannazar_ [Sannazaro's Arcadia],
> translated by I. Martin [also referred to in French sources as "Jean
> Martin," the "I." presumably stands for "Iohannes"], 116 ro in Revue
> d'études Rabelasisiennes [Review of Rabelaisian Studies], IX, 299 :
> *Amarantha* means no decaying, and is properly said of the flower
> which we call Passeveloux [ = "cockscomb" ).
>
> [end of translation]
>
>
> I don't know the meaning of "ro" in the above.
I'm not sure this will have the right appearance on everybody's screen,
but anyway, here I go: "rş" . There should be a small "o" placed in an
exponent position next to the "r". The abbreviation means "recto". So
"116" is not the number of a page, but of a folio, numbered only on its
recto, or first page.
--
Isabelle Cecchini