Kokinshu #32

[lnhammer]

Topic unknown.

    Now that I've plucked some
my sleeves are indeed scented --
    so this bush warbler,
is it singing out that
"The plum blossoms -- here they are!"?

—20 October 2010

Original author unknown. The plum blossoms are finally present, inaugurating a series of poems about them. Flowers were used (directly and as incense) to perfume clothing, and the "elegant confusion" of mistaking the scent of one for the other underlies this and the next three poems. Note also the return of the confusable bush warbler. While I haven't been commenting on it, note as well that case-marking particles were dropped in classical Japanese much more readily than in modern Japanese, even in formal writing, which I mention now because ume no hana ("plum blossoms") exactly fills a 5-syllable line, so almost never has a grammatical marker in poetry -- especially when, as here, it's as a fulcrum middle line around which everything balances. Result: frequent grammatical ambiguity, which sometimes makes a difference in understanding and sometimes doesn't. In this poem, the flowers could be an exclamation or address by either the speaker or bird, or the unmarked subject of ari ("is") as spoken by the bird. I chose the last reading. As an aside, technically, the bird is here singing, rather than singing "here."


oritsureba
sode koso nioe
ume no hana
ari to ya koko ni
uguisu no naku

---L.

Comments

[mme_hardy]

Another comment -- I've never seen a plum, Japanese or other, with scented blossoms.

[lnhammer]

Well, this and the next several poems talk about its scent (as do heaps of Chinese poetry, from whence the topos). Googling "Prunus mume scent" gives lots of mentions of the fragrance. (The Wikipedia article buries its single mention in the cultural notes.) Looking at pictures of the flowers, I don't think I've ever seen this particular plum, but other varieties, but there's also a lot of variation in the blossoms so possibly I have.

---L.

[mme_hardy]

Dude. I have clearly been association with the wrong Japanese plums.

AHA! I followed your link. "Japanese plum" means specifically "ume", which I've never grown. Someday, when I have a much larger garden, I must. ("Japanese flowering plum" is apparently a different plant.)

[mme_hardy]

And I totally want one now.

[lnhammer]

Ah -- I'd never quite gotten clear in my mind that "Japanese flowering plum" is a different tree from the ume, which is, indeed, an import from China.

---L.

[mme_hardy]

My Googling left it murky indeed. But the things I've seen in nurseries called "flowering plums" don't seem to be ume. HOWEVER, interestingly enough, I've wanted a "flowering apricot" for years, precisely because of the smell, and that's -- again because of my Googlings -- the name prunus mume is sold under.

[lnhammer]

Innnnteresting. And per Wikipedia and others, the fruit of Prunus mume is closer to an apricot than a Western plum. OTOH, I've never seen umeboshi, the pickled fruit of Japanese cooking, translated as anything but a "pickled plum." With much the same effect as a saladito.

---L.