Oranges and Cicadas

 ORANGES AND CICADAS

#waka #cicada #tachibana #hagoromo #japanesepoetry #oranges

Original post 2022 

Reposted with some edits 2024 

I was looking for poems about tachibana and trying to avoid the usual cliches about the scent of orange blossom. The Japanese grow tachibana mainly for the scent. Other types of citrus are grown for fruit.

Its an odd plant in that its described as "native" to Japanese but its a hybrid of a hybrid of a sub species that somewhat made it to Japan and its not quite the same plant as the Chinese version.

This is by Fujiwara Takanobu 

Noki chikaki 

Hanatachibana ni 

Kaze sugite 

Nioi o nokosu 

Semi no hagoromo 

Close by my (house) eaves(from) the orange tree the breeze leaves behind its scent (on) the cicadas robes (or wings) 

Probably he was sitting on a verandah facing a garden with a tachibana tree nearby and he could see a cicada nearby or hear it and imagines the scent also drifting on the breeze onto the cicada but wait!

Hagoromo is it robes or wings ? Hagoromo is literally feathered garment but the word is also used to describe wings and plumage. Cicadas have wings but no feathers and I wonder if seeing their glossy translucent wings made the poet think of summer gauzes those light silken under robes aristocrats might strip down to at home in the summer heat ? 

The poem was written as part of a poetry competition with summer as a theme. 

Thoughts on Citrus and Orange Blossom

Thoughts on Citrus 

A favorite theme of Japanese poetry is the scent of orange blossom specifically the scrnt of Tachibana which doesnt actually have edible.

But like the rest of the world the Japanese got their citrus fruits from China. 

While the ancestors of most of the many varieties of citrus fruit seem to derive from one or two or three species so closely genetically similar they could be crossed by accident or intent to make fertile hybrids it seems to have been Chinese gardeners and orchardists who developed Citrons Buddhas Hand Yuzu Mandarins Bitter Oranges Sweet Oranges Lemons Limes Pomelos Tangerines Kumquats and more.

Oh and the Mediterranean citrus fruits probably reached Europe via the Arabs importing seed or trees from India and China or hybridizing those imports with a local variant of the Citron.

Those Japanese and other orchardists in California ?

Those varieties are hybrids.

Enjoying a so called sumo fruit or tangelo or a blood orange.

Thank some ancient traveller from SE Asia who brought the seeds or fruit to China ! 

the moss path

The Moss Path 

#RENGETSU 

Furu dera no 

Koke ji wa ato mo 

Nakari keri

Yona yona goto ni 

Tsuki wa toe domo 

Literally 

Old temple of

Moss path subject remains though 

No more / gone away

Nb 2 verbs nakari plus keri  completely 

night night every ni as time marker 

Moon toe seems to be an abbreviated form of hitoe only 

Domo possibly adverb here or idea of moon as only companion 

My translation 

At the old temple 

Only a trace left

Of the moss path

Night after night

However the Moon visits 

Some further notes

 nakaru not to be 

Keri is not a filler word to complete the syllable count here but suggests the disappearance of the path under moss is recent ? 

Moss can grow very quickly 

While there is a now famous moss temple this could have been any of dozens of smaller temples up in the hills around Kyoto 

Perhaps its the rainy season and the priest or gardener monk put off clearing the path 

It seems Rengetsu glimpsed the path by moonlight ? 

Perhaps she was hoping to moon view or perhaps that temple banned women even nuns ? 

Li Shu on a painting

I went to a recent book fair a charity sake of used books and found a copy of late 1980s copies of Chinese Literature a magazine you used to see in some libraries or leftwing bookshops. 

I used to buy an issue now n then if I was in the city from one particular ship now closed because I also visited for the chinese art materials and the translations of chinese poetry 

No not Wills Quills at Chatswood but a store down in Sydneys version of Chinatown 

Anyway the mnagazine had an article on a 20th century chinese painter and tbis one i m age caught my eye because it featured the Li Shu script variant of Chinese characters.

The illustration was printed on a rather shiny paper so the image is not perfect.

Hers another image showing most of the painting as illustrated in the magazine. 

I t didnt say whether he used paper or silk.

Huang Qiu Yuan is the painter and the Chinese literature issue was Spring 1987

Sorry if I havnt posted for a while but I want to have something special to share 

Next time probably Haiku again!