Scented Quote of the Day, from a 13th Century French Poem:
Le livre des propriétés des choses de Barthélémy l'Anglais, XVème siècle
The orchard was as beautiful as one could wish for:
In it all sorts of plants were growing
that I would be most incapable of naming to you;
but I can tell you without lying
that there were roses and other flowers
that exhaled mellifluous scents,
and spices of such virtues that
a bedridden person
crippled by sickness
would have left in full health, without any more infirmities
provided that person had slept in the orchard
one whole night...
In it grew beneficial herbs
and the meadow was so well leveled
that there were neither hollows nor hills
and all the trees were at the same height
reaching out for the sky:
the world had never seen such a beautiful orchard.
You couldn't have craved for a fruit without finding it in this orchard
and this in all seasons.
The one that had created it was very knowing;
This orchard had come about by magic,
there were many proofs of it.
From Le lai de l'oiselet
(My translation based on a modern French translation by Suzanne Méjean-Thiolet and Marie-Françoise Notz-Grob in Nouvelles Courtoises + checking the original medieval text)
