More Peonies

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