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Mango tree
Manguier - شجرة المانجو
Description
The mango tree is a tropical tree, known for its delicious, sweet fruit. Its dense evergreen foliage provides pleasant shade, while its long green leaves give it an elegant appearance. When it flowers, it is adorned with small yellow or white flowers, fragrant and melliferous. Highly resistant to heat, it thrives in warm, humid climates, but needs well-drained soil. Its wood is also used in carpentry and construction. As well as its ornamental qualities, it is highly prized for its fruit rich in vitamins and minerals.
The mango trees in the garden have different origins: India, Florida and West Africa and some date back to when the garden was first laid out in place of the car assembly sheds in the late 1930s. Charles's wife, Samia Baroudy, was particularly fond of them and used to offer them to her friends.
Poem
Like Fruit…
In the four corners of the earth,
Winter, summer, day, night,
Like a poet
Whom a divine song haunts,
The bountiful tree toils,
Without a sound or a pause
And however beautiful are its flowers,
It most importantly gives fruit.
Even when lost in meditation,
The inspired tree dutifully provides;
And whether the fruit is to be ignored or uprooted,
It is not bothered.
Will it be made into jam
For the king’s son?
Or wither from the cold
And fall into decay?
Will it inspire a great psalmist?
Or survive the season;
In the jars of an alchemist,
Who will turn it into poison?
Is it to be compared
To the dear charms of a mistress?
Or does it serve reason
As a good scientific element?
Is it tasted by the angels?
So much the better – especially if it is juicy!
Do we forget ourselves from its drunken harvests?
May God forgive us…
Will it be taken for the delight
Of a wretched man living in a hovel?
Or will it serve in the making of a nefarious plot?
So much the better, so much the worse!
A healthy tree, smiling,
From the great sun that warms and shines,
Knows only that it must produce
What Heaven has provisioned.
Despite the time that runs and flies
And the uncertain skies that swing from blue to black,
Exactly like the poet,
The tree must produce its fruit.
Decembre 1939
Published in La Montagne Parfumée, Éditions de la Revue Phénicienne, 2004.
