Plum Blossoms

 #ume #surimono #gakutei #japaneseprint

Its Plum Blossom Viewing season in many parts of Northern Asia especially Japan hence my choice of this #surimono print showing a cake box and plum blossom 

I hope all my readers are or have had a wonderful Lunar New year Feast ! 

A single Line a single branch

#liqingzhao #ci #plum #chinese poetry

A Single Line A single branch

Chinese poetry can be just as info compact as haiku.

While Li Qing Zhao's favorite flower seems to have been the Osmanthus for its fragrance she often mentions Plum Blossom.

Several people have books out translating her poetry.

I particularly recommend C. Pannam Music From A Jade Flute

On P. 134 he translate one line of chinese verse as three

"a single branch of plum blossom informs the east god of the coming of spring"

p. 251 has the chinese hanzi and a transliteration of the poem.

The 3 lines in the translation are one elegant seven character line in Chinese.

Yi zhi xi de dong jun xin

Some people find Li Qing Zhao's verse melancholy or bordering on sentimental but it has a certain power and I sometimes think if she'd born in the say the American South she would have been a Blues or Jazz Songtress?

Do read Pannams book if you can borrow or buy it!

Waga sono a Heian Waka featuring plum blossom

#wagasono #waka #plum #heian

MYS XIX:4140
Ootomo Yakamochi 718-85

Waga sono no sumomo no hana ka?
Niwa ni furu hadare no imada nokaritaru mo.

This is one of those seeming so simple poems that has a few twists.

(in) my garden is that the plum blossom?
In the yard falling (like rain) patches still are lingering.

Sono seems to be his outer garden and niwa his inner yard implying the blossom is falling all through his property. As a Heian aristocrat he may have had a property large enough to have a outer garden surrounding the pavilions and some enclosed private yards as well.
But is it plum blossom (sumomo is a type of plum) or patches of something else like snow implied by hadare?

While I've seen texts of this poem written in a mixture of kana and kanji note that this poem has NO chinese loan words and can be written entirely in kana.