dawn revealed

Oh, when you remind me of her door,

I feel the rapture bubbling up once more.

How can I forget that blessing, ever,

When you bring to mind long buried treasure?

#1693: From Rumi's Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi

Key word: door

My eye has been drawn to the door imagery that turned up also in yesterday's quatrain. In English, door resonates with dawn and I think of the origin of the day. When a man speaks of a woman as standing at her door, it's not hard to imagine our doorway into this world, into life, the passage through which the dawn of our lives unfolded. There are always deeper, evolving meanings inside this imagery of life's beginnings. As Rumi puts it, there is long buried treasure there, deep and almost forgotten memories. Perhaps, for a man, the first time he is with a woman becomes an evocative moment of origins, of newness, of wonder. Perhaps this is why many men tire of a woman once the first penetration has been achieved. After this, she loses her symbolic value as Virgin Goddess. Fromm would say that once his Having is accomplished his Being is lost and forgotten. He searches for it anew when all he needs is a simple reminder and a sensitive awareness of a rapture bubbling up once more.

Ironically, the most realistic and straightforward artistic depiction of this door is nevertheless immensely powerful. It is as if this artistic honesty unveils the mystery more effectively than any coy romantic setting could achieve.

Gustave Courbet: L'Origine du monde @ wikipedia.org