As I was editing the tulip
photos from my recent trip to Istanbul,
I couldn’t help but notice that all the red images seemed to stand out the
most.
Red and white make up the
colors of the Turkish flag, so not surprisingly, the Turks transferred that
same color scheme into their gardens, especially at Emirgan
Korusu.
Literally!
 |
| A Turkish "flag" made from red tulips was a new addition to the park this year. |
Since I took more than 100
photos of the tulips this year, I decided to devote a second blog post only to
the red tulips in the park. I had so many photos that I found it difficult to
narrow it down to simply 10 photos of the red tulips, which do look quite
ravishing.
Interestingly, a Persian
legend may be responsible for the red tulip’s symbolism of love and passion. One
of the story’s variations goes that a prince named Farhad was love struck by a
maiden named Shirin in Azerbaijan. The original story, "Khosrow
and Shirin," was the title of a famous Persian tragic romance written
by Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209).
After meeting, the two
lovers keep ending up in different places. Finally, after Farhad learned that
Shirin had been killed, he killed himself by riding his horse over the edge of
a cliff because he was overcome with grief. The legend says that scarlet tulips
sprang up from each droplet of his blood, giving the red tulip the meaning of “perfect
love.”
Well, even if you don’t
believe in this tragic story, there’s no denying that red represents the color
of love, and these red Turkish tulips are quite lovely!
