on a fine day in spring

The weather is very fickle in this season, but it has been warm and fine these days. In my garden Japanese Andromeda bloomed and began to fade away.






And I found the wild violet this morning by the shrub of the Japanese Andromeda.

It was really fine day last Thursday.


My husband went out for viewing cherry blossoms with his friends.
They are always searching for some reason and occasion for drinking and eating.




Cherry blossoms near my house were in full bloom last week.

The day was too fine to just stay at home doing some more laundry or cleaning the floor.


I could not resist my impulse to go out in the sunshine ,so I took a train bound  for Kyoto shortly after, remembering that I happened to see a magical picture of weeping cherry blossoms along Kamogawa river in Kyoto.

The colour of the blossoms were pink-red and each flower looked a little bigger than that of common cherry flower called Somei-yoshino which are seen in the above picture.
On earth how many sort of cherry blossoms are there. I know the names of only a few.

The blossoms came into sight just like the picture I saw, hanging the branches on a basket- like arch and bathing spring brilliant sunlight. This district is called Nakaragi(半木）.

There were fewer people than I expected, but all of them look up at the ceiling decorated with cherry blossoms when they go through the arch.

Some are pushing their baby cars and some are doing the same for wheelchairs, and every one looks happy.

It was relaxing time, and I thought as if I could take a long long walk along the river.

But now it was time to return, for I did not leave any message for my husband because I left home impulsively.

しゃりしゃりとガラス毀（こぼ）るる音のして再生工場前さくら咲く　haricot

sha-ri, sha-ri, sha-ri,,,

bits of glass were falling

inside of the recycling plant

and by the gate

cherry blossoms are fully in bloom

I composed this tanka last spring, walking along a river which was closer to my residence.

I was caught by a strange sensation when I heard such a sound like glass breaking and were littering somewhere in the factory and I saw some cherry blossoms as they were reborn in front of the recycling plant.

Cherry blossoms make me feel some mysterious power.

It is supposed that they were at their peak last weekend.

beneath some cherry trees

Some cherry trees started to have their flowers in this district, later than the usual time of bloom.

In Japan, schools and universities usually hold their entrance ceremony at the beginning of April, and then cherry blossoms welcome pupils and students with their  pinkish glamour appearance, though this year some cherry blossoms couldn't appear in time because of lingering cold weather.



 
 Several days ago I went to a city hall in Minoh city in Osaka to help edit of some tanka poems for a tanka festival which will be held in May, sponsored by the Mainichi Newspaper company.
 
 


one week ago

On my way I passed by my old elementary school. I remembered there was a statue of a boy called Kinjirou, the model of a diligent boy, by the gate of the school.

Time fries , but he still stands there reading a text book with a bundle of sticks of firewood on his back, beneath a cherry tree that had barely started to have some flowers.

A lot of tiny plants, wild flowers, ferns and moss, are burgeoning on the ground in this season. Still, many people in Japan, including me, are looking forward to see cherry blossoms impatiently.

And once they have bloomed many people hope to be invited into the territory of the blossoms as if they were mesmerised by it.

A big reason for it is that cherry blossoms are transient, as it is often said.


In fact instability of weather of this season makes me anxious about that the petals might fall too soon.

It was not yet full bloom but I got off the train to see cherry trees along a river in Osaka city when I went back from the city hall.

Can you see Osaka castle over the river?

The contrast of the water and the sunlit bud reminds me of the following tanka poem written by Shūji Terayama(1935～1982).


Poems sometimes make some foggy thought in my mind abruptly clear.

マッチ擦るつかのま海に霧ふかし身捨つるほどの祖国はありや　寺山修司

striking a match

momentarily

I see the fog ocean

is there a motherland

I can dedicate myself to?

translated by Amelia Fielden

And two days later, in Nara Park.