GARDENS OF THE PERSIAN POETS 7 



spot where the north wind may scatter the roses 



over it " ; and adds Khwajah Nizami, "I wondered 

 at the words he spoke, but I knew that his were 

 no idle words. Years after, when I chanced to 

 visit Naishapur, I went to his final resting-place, 

 and lo ! it was just outside a garden, and trees 

 laden with fruit stretched their boughs over the 

 garden wall, and dropped their flowers upon 

 his tomb, so that the stone was hidden under 



them." *U<* 9 Jk. 



These fragrant Gardens of the Bulbul and 

 the Rose, and all the poetic imagery they inspired, 

 are well known to us, but the passionate national 

 love of flowers, of which these writings were the 

 outcome, is not so widely understood. Japan is 

 now always thought of as the country where 

 flowers and gardens play the largest part in the 

 national life and art, while the parallel case of 

 Persia is almost forgotten. This is not surprising 

 when one reflects that in Japan garden-culture 

 flourishes as a living art whose results are apparent 

 to every traveller, while in Persia years of war- 

 fare and misgovernment have left the old gardens 

 neglected and almost inaccessible. 



Intense appreciation of flowers seems to have 

 been very general all over Central Asia, and may 



