COVE

New York City, New York

October 12, 1900

My dear Margaret, 

I beg leave to offer an Oriental gem I found in literature form to my beloved.  Sans Shakespeare, I would not know the many emotions you brought forth in me, an open spring flowed from the heart, could be written in scripts. Equally romantic are scores of lines within the book this letter comes in. I hope this loving vestibule and my endless prose are greeted with your winsome smile.

As I perused Brentano’s to find you favorable writing for your collection, I happened upon the alluring cover of a translation by Edward Fitzgerald of the Oriental Omar Khayyam. Hand-woven, the text comes from Edinburgh, way across the Atlantic and in closer proximity to the East. The book pages are large, and the book is tall, I believe, to suit in physicality the grandeur of such a text. I am well aware that Khayyamian interpretation of life is in discordance with your own, however it is the lines of love in this poem that transcends the philosophy. Dearest, I hope you know I think of our time together when I read Quatrain XXI, for I spend some of the best and most fleeting moments with you. 

The paintings which adorn the text have been contributed by Abanindro Nath Tagore, who I hear is another Oriental artist. Remember the times I pick flowers for you when you marvel at the painting accompanying Quatrain XIV. Remember and look to forthcoming nights we have as you read Quatrain XII. And remember what we sill have yet to do in all life’s transience. 

Your Wisenheimer,

John Ellis