Language of the Lily

This lily has grown in our garden since we moved here 10 years ago, just the one, each year producing a couple of lovely blooms in spite of neglect and even creating a rockery over it. I'm very fond of it.

My name seems to mean Joyful Lily whichever way you look at it. Hebrew for 'to be joyful, bright or cheerful' or 'joy of life'; Persian 'sousan or susan' means lily, and the ancient Persian city of Susa was on a plain where lilies grew profusely. Egyptian 'ssn' means lotus flower, dating from at least 2000BC, is perhaps a bit of a stretch as it is a misconception to equate lotus and waterlily when its real symbolism is spiritual path or rebirth, depending on whether you are looking at Buddhism or Eyptian beliefs.

I'll take all that, and hope I can live up to it.

Night after night
darkness
enters the face
of the lily
which, lightly,
closes its five walls
around itself,
and its purse
of honey,
and its fragrance,
and is content
to stand there
in the garden,
not quite sleeping,
and, maybe,
saying in lily language
some small words
we can't hear

from The Lily by Mary Oliver