In a solitary garden, beautiful in its corners, good in character, lived a violet contented among her peers, swaying joyfully among the grass stems. On one morning, crowned with dewdrops, she raised her head and looked around her. She saw a rose stretching toward the heights with a slender stature and a head towering proudly as if it were a flame of fire above a lamp made of emerald.
The Violet: The violet opened her blue mouth and sighed, saying, “How little is my fortune among the flowers, and how low is my station among them! Nature created me small and insignificant. I live clinging to the earth’s surface and cannot raise my stature toward the blueness of the sky or turn my face toward the sun as the roses do.”
The Rose: The rose heard what her neighbor the violet had said, shook with laughter, and then said, “How foolish you are among the flowers! You are in a blessing whose value you are unaware of. Nature has granted you fragrance, grace, and beauty that she has not granted to many flowers. So abandon these crooked inclinations and evil aspirations, and be content with what God has allotted for you. Know that whoever lowers his wing, his status is raised, and whoever seeks more falls into deficiency.”
Nature: The violet answered, saying, “You console me, O Rose, because you have attained what I wish for, and you overwhelm my insignificance with judgments because you are great. How bitter are the counsels of the happy in the hearts of the miserable, and how harsh is the powerful when he stands as an orator among the weak!”
Nature heard what had passed between the rose and the violet, shook in wonder, then raised her voice, saying, “What has happened to you, my daughter the violet? I have known you as gentle in your humility, sweet in your smallness, noble in your humility. Have vile desires seduced you, or has empty greatness stolen your mind?”
The Change and Regret: The violet answered with a voice filled with pleading and supplication, “O great Mother, formidable in her might, immense in her compassion, I implore you with all the pleading in my heart and all the hope in my soul, to answer my request and make me a rose, even for just one day…” Nature said, “You do not know what you are asking nor do you know what is behind the apparent greatness in hidden calamities. If I raise your stature and change your image and make you a rose, you will regret it when regret is of no avail.”
The Transformation from Violet to Rose: The violet said, “Transform my violet being into a tall rose, raised in head… and whatever befalls me after that will be the product of my desires and ambitions.”
Nature said, “I have answered your request, O ignorant, rebellious violet, but if calamities and difficulties befall you, let your complaint be to yourself.” Nature extended her hidden magical fingers and touched the violet’s veins, transforming her in a moment into a radiant rose, elevated above the flowers and herbs.
The Fierce Wind: When the afternoon of that day came, the sky became overcast with black clouds lined with a storm, then the calm of existence was agitated. It thundered and lightning flashed, and began to fight those gardens and orchards with a massive army of rains, breaking branches, twisting trunks, and uprooting the towering flowers.
Nothing remained except the small herbs that cling to the earth or hide among the rocks. As for that solitary garden, it suffered from the raging elements what the other garden did not share. The storm passed and the clouds dispersed, and its flowers became dust. After that wild turmoil, nothing remained safe except a group of violets hidden by the garden wall.
The Violets and the Transformed Rose: One of the violet girls raised her head, saw what had befallen the garden’s flowers and trees, smiled with joy, and then called out to her companion, saying, “Look at what the storm has done to the towering herbs—with pride and wonder!” Another violet said, “We cling to the dust, but we are saved from the wrath of storms and storms.”
A third violet said, “Our bodies are insignificant, but the storms cannot overcome us.” At that moment, the queen of the violet group looked and saw near her the rose that had been a violet yesterday. The storm had uprooted it, scattered its leaves with the winds, and thrown it on the wet grass, becoming like a slain one whom the enemy had struck with an arrow.
The Advice of the Violet Queen: The queen of the violet group raised her stature, extended her leaves, and called her companions, saying, “Contemplate and look, my daughters. Look at the violet whom desires deceived, so she transformed into a rose to be proud for an hour, then descended to the lowest depths. Let this scene be a lesson for all.”
The Ambitious Violet: At that moment, the dying rose trembled, gathered her failing strength, and said in a broken voice, “Hear me, O ignorant, content ones, fearful of storms and hurricanes. Yesterday I was exactly like you, sitting among my green leaves, content with what God had allotted for me. Contentment was an impregnable barrier separating me from the storms of life and its inclinations, making my existence limited in its safety, bounded in its comfort and tranquility.”
I could have lived like you, clinging to the dust, until winter covered me with its snows, and went like those before me to the quiet of death and non-existence, before knowing the secrets of existence and its hidden mysteries—other than what the violet group has known since the violet existed on the earth’s surface. I could have turned away from desires and abstained from things that are naturally above my nature.
Blame and Reproach of the Violet: But I listened to the quiet of the night and heard the upper world say to this world, “The purpose of existence is to aspire to what is beyond existence.” So my self rebelled against itself, my passion wandered to a station higher than my feeling, and I continued to rebel against myself and long for what was not mine until my rebellion turned into effective power and my longing transformed into creative will. I asked Nature—and Nature is nothing but external manifestations of our hidden dreams—to transform me into a rose, and she did. Nature has often changed her images and drawings with fingers of desire and longing.
Pride and Glory: The rose fell silent for a moment, then added with a tone filled with pride and superiority, “I lived for an hour as a queen. I looked at the universe from behind rose eyes, heard the whisper of the ether with rose ears, and touched the lips of light with rose leaves. Is there among you one who can claim my honor?”
The End of the Ambitious Violet: Then she twisted her neck, and with a voice that was almost a gasp, she said, “I am dying now. I die, and in me is what was never in the soul of any violet before me. I die knowing what is beyond the limited ocean in which I was born. This is the purpose of life, this is the essence behind the trifles of days and nights.” The rose closed her leaves, trembled a little, and then died, with a smile on her face that realized life’s wishes—the smile of victory and triumph.