Searching for The Real Rose…

Most people now know the quotation, “A rose is a rose is a rose…” But others know it as “Rose is a rose…” Can you see the difference?

The first quote refers to a flower and the second refers to a person. The quote is by the American writer Gertrude Stein. But which if any is the real Rose?

Repetition was one of Gertrude’s trademarks and this expression appears again and again. Later, other writers used it as a device. But for me, the day I stood at the grave of Rose Lucy Renee Anne D’Aiguy MacMasters in the tiny community of Beon France, I knew I found the real Rose.

I had been a guest at Chateau Beon, where Rose once lived. There, as a guest of her son Jean, I was asked to visit her last resting-place. With a few others, we entered the tiny cemetery. In the south- east corner, we stood reading the tombstone of Jean’s mother. She died in Belly, France on Feb 13, 1988.

I placed a small stone on the tomb and explained that in my tradition, one placed a stone there to let other visitors know that someone had been there before them. For me it has always been a lift to find new stones waiting to tell me someone else took time to visit. But that was 15 years ago. I cannot say if the stones are still there.

On the ensuing years my wife and I have become friends with Jean and his wife Noriko. We have visited often. I even brought tour groups to Beon to walk around the spacious garden, meet Jean & Noriko and read some of The World is Round, written by Gertrude.  

I stayed in their chateau and recently spent 10 days in Lyon where they have lived since the Chateau was sold. We ate in wonderful restaurants since Lyons is a gourmand’s dream, renewed our friendship with Jean’s lawyer and his wife, Pierre and Claude Beaude and spent hours talking of the past and future in Jean’s sunlit apartment atop a tall building in central Lyon.

Fifteen years have changed us all. Jean is now a prolific budding artist which reminds us that Rose too was an artist (and a poet). He is still in the experimental stages but his paintings of tropical fish and Spanish dancers are exciting and alive. Over time I expect to see great success from my friend.

Jean’s family history is filled with names of statesmen, soldiers, people of distinction and writers. His great grandmother’s picture still adorns his wall. She wrote Liline and Her Dumb Friends, which Gertrude certainly read.

Rose’s mother May Tagnard (La Baronne d’Aiguy) translated  some of Gertrude’s books & befriended Gertrude who often wrote in the small gardener’s house at the edge of the property. The d’Aiguy Chateau Beon was an imposing gray stone building filled with memories, memorabilia and Gertrude’s books. It was May who found the Clos Poncet in Culoz for Gertrude and Alice to live in during the war.

It is now classified as a “Jardin de France.

Now the question arises, is the expression “Rose is a rose” referring to a flower or a young girl? Actually it was used many times and the earliest date I found is in the 1913 poem, Sacred Emily which states “Rose is a rose is a rose”. Here, Rose is the name of a woman. Her meaning was that ‘things are what they are”…Rose is a rose…

Yet Gertrude once remarked, “I know that in daily life we don’t go around saying ‘is a…is a…is a…’ but I think that in that line the rose is red for the first time in English poetry.”  

The reference used in her children’s book The World is Round is for the main character Rose d’Aiguy.  One source tells us that Rose was awed by Gertrude’s presence and often ran away into the mountain behind their chateau. According to the story, she went into the mountain and carved her name on a tree trunk. She carved ‘Rose’ and then continued around the trunk ‘…is a rose…is a rose…’

Proof? I can’t say, since Gertrude used a flower (Rose) inside the circular quotation on her stationary.   

I am told that Gertrude read much of the story to Rose as it was being written. According to her, the little girl enjoyed the story very much. Gertrude wrote:
I am Rose my eyes are blue

I am Rose and who are you

I am rose and when I sing

I am Rose like anything

Rose went on to marry Donald MacMasters and Jean (referred to on the internet as Count Jean d’Aiguy) was born in 1952. He may have his mother’s talent for art but he has yet to try his hand at poetry.

Jean spent many years away at school. He returned to Beon for Rose’s funeral and on the advice of Maitre Baude (his lawyer) he later returned with his wife, Noriko, to live there permanently.   

Most academics know that Rose is a rose… or… rose is a rose was a line always associated Gertrude. I like to believe that Rose d’Aiguy was really the first rose.  

Other authors have taken the liberty to change the expression to suit themselves. In William Burrough’s Naked Lunch, he wrote, “the word for word is word” and “a rat is a rat is a rat is a rat.” Hemingway, after a falling out with Gertrude, wrote in For Whom the Bell Tolls, “A rose is a rose is an onion.’ Add Aldous Huxley who changed the line to “An apple is an apple is an apple.” But the most unusual use of the repetition is a computer game, which features a villain named appropriately Rosa Zarrosas-Arroz.

All very interesting but for me the expression will always be attached to my friend Jean’s mother, “Rose is a rose is a D’Aiguy.”