Plum Blossoms
„The little rose pricked the boy,
so that he would feel the pain of the prick
and remember it forever.”
So goes Goethe’s “Heidenröslein” (Little Heath Rose) –
the symbol of a wounding beauty.
However, the haiku “Umeno Hana” (Plum Blossoms)
by the Japanese poet Kagano Chiyo (1703–1775) is quite different:
Here, human violence and nature meet
in a delicate, quiet symbiosis.
“To the one who broke it,
it still gives its fragrance –
plum blossom branch.”
The idea for “In the Garden of Women Composers” came from Gisela Weimann. She collected new works by women composers that focus on plants and used them to create a musical exhibition combining music and nature.
