The Book of the Rose

This work brings the reader through the ecstasy and sufferings of a lover as he experiences the patterns of courtship in pursuing unity with his beloved. As an allegory for a state of mystical union and of the frustrations of separation from the Beloved, the work encompasses many aspects of our contemporary lives, and offers the consolation of love itself as an ongoing springtime of the soul, which is seen as both a wound and the healing from the wound--a poison that may take our lives, and the cure for whatever may ail us. This rose will enfold each reader in its fragrance, and be a mirror of his or her own reality. It is the only verse translation of its kind, in that it has both free form and preserves some of the rhythm (and often the rhyme) of the original. Le Roman de la Rose has had as many readers throughout history as our modern day box-office hits have had viewers. It has been instrumental in bringing the book itself down from the lectern of the few, and into the hands of people. A true rose!