OneIsEros
Rising Star
I did a bit of Googling, and was delighted by what I found.
The tree, Acacia Confusa, is Taiwanese, a Mandarin Chinese speaking country. They call the tree 台灣相思樹 (Taiwan Xiangsi Shu) which translates literally as "Taiwanese Thinking Each Other Tree". However, the term 相思 "Xiang Si", two symbols which by themselves mean "thinking" and "each other", if you type it into online translation, gets you results like "missing", or "yearning", or (Google Translate's translation), "lovesickness". It basically means missing someone, thinking about them.
Okay, neat - but wait. Then, I look up Syrian Rue's traditional name's etymology. When I Google the Arabic حرمل, which in the Latin alphabet is Harmel (Peganum Harmala, Syrian Rue) - this is the wiktionary page:
"Etymology
From Classical Syriac ܐܪܡܠܐ (ˀarmalā, “harmal; Syrian rue”), from Ancient Greek ἁρμαλά (harmalá ) , a loanword of uncertain etymology linked to Akkadian 𒌑𒀀𒈾𒈨𒊒 (anamiru, “medical and ritual herb”); cognate with Hebrew אַלְמָן (ʾalmān)."
So I think, "Alright, doesn't tell me much... so what does this Hebrew term it's cognate with mean?"
Wiktionary again for this Hebrew term "אלמן" (in the Latin alphabet "almán" ) :
"אַלְמָן • (almán) m (feminine counterpart אַלְמָנָה)
widower (man whose wife has died)"
Isn't that crazy!?!? Syrian Rue= WIDOWER and Acacia=LOVESICK/YEARNING/MISSING
Opposite sides of the globe, totally unrelated cultures, both completely unaware of the hallucinogenic properties which would arise from harmala+DMT combinations, and yet the traditional names for these two plants which only recently came together in human history are basically meant for each other.
Also kind of cool that with "widower" death is sort of involved in the name the same way traditional "ayahuasca" ("death/spirit-vine" ) has "death" in its name... and nice that "love" in some form is thrown in with it. I like thinking of them as long-separated lovers who become united together in the magical world of spirits.
Personally I'm tweaking the "lovesick widower" a little bit for the sake of English euphony (euphony=sounding good), and am just calling it "widow's love". The name implies the nature of the love simply by being placed in conjunction with a widow, and the feminine form "widow" has better euphony in my ears than "widower". And of course, since we brew these plants into a magical potion, I cannot resist calling it a "love potion"...
---edit: Also worth noting is that the way we say "harmel" as "harmala" is closer to the feminine form of "alman", which is "almana". So the way we say "harmala" is indeed actually closer to "widow" "almana" rather than "widower" "alman". end edit---
So there you have it. "Widow's Love Potion". Shorthand, from now on I'll be referring to it as either "Widow's Love", or simply as "Love Potion". I think the most literal "Widow's Love" is the most euphonic. You saw it here first! ; )
The tree, Acacia Confusa, is Taiwanese, a Mandarin Chinese speaking country. They call the tree 台灣相思樹 (Taiwan Xiangsi Shu) which translates literally as "Taiwanese Thinking Each Other Tree". However, the term 相思 "Xiang Si", two symbols which by themselves mean "thinking" and "each other", if you type it into online translation, gets you results like "missing", or "yearning", or (Google Translate's translation), "lovesickness". It basically means missing someone, thinking about them.
Okay, neat - but wait. Then, I look up Syrian Rue's traditional name's etymology. When I Google the Arabic حرمل, which in the Latin alphabet is Harmel (Peganum Harmala, Syrian Rue) - this is the wiktionary page:
"Etymology
From Classical Syriac ܐܪܡܠܐ (ˀarmalā, “harmal; Syrian rue”), from Ancient Greek ἁρμαλά (harmalá ) , a loanword of uncertain etymology linked to Akkadian 𒌑𒀀𒈾𒈨𒊒 (anamiru, “medical and ritual herb”); cognate with Hebrew אַלְמָן (ʾalmān)."
حرمل - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
en.wiktionary.org
So I think, "Alright, doesn't tell me much... so what does this Hebrew term it's cognate with mean?"
Wiktionary again for this Hebrew term "אלמן" (in the Latin alphabet "almán" ) :
"אַלְמָן • (almán) m (feminine counterpart אַלְמָנָה)
widower (man whose wife has died)"
אלמן - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
en.wiktionary.org
Isn't that crazy!?!? Syrian Rue= WIDOWER and Acacia=LOVESICK/YEARNING/MISSING
Opposite sides of the globe, totally unrelated cultures, both completely unaware of the hallucinogenic properties which would arise from harmala+DMT combinations, and yet the traditional names for these two plants which only recently came together in human history are basically meant for each other.
Also kind of cool that with "widower" death is sort of involved in the name the same way traditional "ayahuasca" ("death/spirit-vine" ) has "death" in its name... and nice that "love" in some form is thrown in with it. I like thinking of them as long-separated lovers who become united together in the magical world of spirits.
Personally I'm tweaking the "lovesick widower" a little bit for the sake of English euphony (euphony=sounding good), and am just calling it "widow's love". The name implies the nature of the love simply by being placed in conjunction with a widow, and the feminine form "widow" has better euphony in my ears than "widower". And of course, since we brew these plants into a magical potion, I cannot resist calling it a "love potion"...
---edit: Also worth noting is that the way we say "harmel" as "harmala" is closer to the feminine form of "alman", which is "almana". So the way we say "harmala" is indeed actually closer to "widow" "almana" rather than "widower" "alman". end edit---
So there you have it. "Widow's Love Potion". Shorthand, from now on I'll be referring to it as either "Widow's Love", or simply as "Love Potion". I think the most literal "Widow's Love" is the most euphonic. You saw it here first! ; )