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.
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