I'll make it
my bed in the next world
this peony
--Issa
Visit to the Hermit Chui
Moss covered paths between scarlet peonies,
Pale jade mountains fill your rustic windows.
I envy you, drunk with flowers;
Butterflies swirling in your dreams.
– Qian Qi (Tang Dynasty)
One poem
per blossom is not enough
for a peony
--Ryumin
"It's this big!"
Tiny stretching arms
Form her peony.
--Issa (trans. Joy Norton)
Peonies bloom
and the world is full
of liars.
--Kyoroku/Kyoriku
Peonies at Jixing Temple
Springtime radiance, gradually, gradually where does it go?
Again before a wine jar, we take up a goblet.
All day we’ve questioned the flowers, but the flowers do not speak.
For whom do they shed their petals and leaves, for whom do they bloom?
–Emperor Yang (Sui Dynasty)
Bow low
if you really want to see
the peony
--Taigi
Drinking with Friends Amongst the Blooming Peonies
We had a drinking party to admire the peonies.
I drank cup after cup till I was drunk.
Then to my shame I heard the flowers whisper,
“What are we doing, blooming for these old alcoholics?”
–Ling Huchu (Tang Dynasty)
Matching Premier Linghu’s “Taking Leave of the Peonies”
In my official mansion, a balustrade of flowers.
But when it’s time for them to bloom, I’m always away from home!
Do not say the Twin Capitals are not far distant parted.
The springtime brilliance beyond my gate is the very abyss of Heaven.
–Liu Yushi (Tang Dynasty)
Peonies blooming,
the last cherries might as well
not exist
--Kiichi
