On the Rose and Laughter

In Turkish literature, the rose symbolizes laughter, while the tulip represents sorrow and tears.

In one of his ghazals, Divan poet Ahmedî writes:

Wherever you smile, it becomes spring

Wherever I cry, tulips bloom with tears

These lines, in a way, reflect the aforementioned truth. Their meaning is, “Wherever you smile, roses bloom, and the season becomes like spring. Wherever I cry, my bloody tears flow, and my surroundings turn into tulip gardens.”

Despite both adorning gardens with the same crimson hue, why is the rose perceived as a symbol of joy and the tulip as a symbol of sorrow?

What is the reason that made Hazreti Mevlana express this meaning in his lines?

“The troubled and unfortunate laughter is the laughter of the tulip, for when it laughs, the darkness of its heart is visible.”

The reason is clear. The Divan poets noticed: Both the rose and the tulip are crimson and, with their outward appearances, vividly resemble a burning fire, expressing a pinkish cheerfulness like smiling faces. However, from the blooming of the rose, which signifies its laughter, no other color representing inner sorrow is visible.

The tulip, on the other hand, is not like that. The outer colors of the tulips are so crimson, so vivid and cheerful, but their inner colors are black. When they bloom, they always show this black color inside, as if there is an eternal mourning in their hearts.

The pinkish hues on the smiling human face, the dimples on the cheeks, referred to as “gamze” by the people, resembling roses in their cheerfulness, and finally, the lips curling like rose petals to complete this cheerfulness, all these justifiably made the rose a symbol of joy and laughter in old literature.

The blackness in the inner color of the tulip also evoked the state of melancholy people who appeared cheerful on the outside but harbored various sorrows within.

In old poetry, countless poems emerged from this perspective, but listing them all here is impossible… Let us conclude with these lines from Yahya Kemal:

Every smile of the beloved becomes a garden on the mountain

this expresses an inner and outer languor.

Either the tulip should bloom in our chests or the rose

there is such joy in these lines.

I wanted my first writing to start with content about the rose 🌹 and laughter 🙂. Thankfully, it was without the sorrow of the tulip 🌷.

May your pages always be filled with peace, joy, and relief, replacing the stress, fatigue, and exhaustion of your day!