(Asagao ni Turube torarete morai Mizu (Chiyojo)
Oh Morning glory! Extending your hand to creep on the well rope quickly,
Deprives me of my morning duty and joy.
Stay here, I will borrow water from the neighbor.
When I was a child and heard this "Haiku" poem for the first
time, I wondered why morning glory has hands and gripped the well rope.
Later I knew the poet was a young widow who lived in Edo era and at near
my hometown, and understood her grief.
Really I was a thoughtless kid at that time.
My interpretation of the poet
I have been working household whole day and night without servants since
my lord passed away.
Taking care of my baby and preparing meals for parents like a rat.
This morning going to the well to scoop water later than usual, I found
vines of morning glory twining the well rope.
A couple of flowers are turning their faces toward the sun on the top of
the vine joyfully.
If throwing the bucket into the well, the vine may be torn and the flower
be fallen down.
Though I know the blooming is short and have to do my morning duties, I
can not.
Oh morning glory! like my husband, soon finish your life.
I will let you enjoy your shining life for a while and borrow water from our neighbors.
Now I understand this is an elegy of a young widow.
Among her poets, there is another elegy like,
Looking around on the bed, seeing from the bed, how wide the mosquito net!
She was not only astonishing the wideness of the bedroom but grieving solely
sleeping nights.
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Variety of morning glories Left (Matsubara, Setagaya)） Right (Chitosedai, Setagaya) |
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Left (Sakurajosui, Setagaya) Right (Chitosedai, Setagaya) |
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Left (Kinuta, Setagaya) Right (Kamikitazawa, Setagaya) |
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| Large morning glory (Chitosedai, Setagaya) |
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| Bunched morning glories | |
 (Sakuragaoka, Setagaya) |
 (Chitosedai, Setagaya) |
| Bellbind("Hiru-gao": noon face) Do you remember a movie that Catherine de Neave played the heroine with wanton sensuality? Real bellbind is a pure and beautiful flower different from the movie image. Moonflower ("Yu-gao":evening face) is one of ill-starred heroines in the Genji Story, the great Japanese classics wrote 1,200 years ago. But the real fruit of flower is used a Gourd Stripe Rolls. (Hanegi, Setagaya) |
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