Spring
The cherry blossoms have started to open in Atsushi’s city. They’re late again this year and are still closed in Tokyo, so the following is anticipatory:
ねがはくば花の下にて春しなんその如月の望月のころ
西行法師
negawakuba/hana no moto nite/haru shinan/sono kisaragi no/mochidzuki no koro
Saigyō Hōshi
If I have my wish,
I will die beneath the boughs
laden with blossoms–
Spring, the night of the full moon,
second moon of the new year.The Priest Saigyo
All right, I had to shove the “spring” after the caesura and pad the part before the caesura with “boughs” (in case you don’t know where the flowers on trees grow). And Saigyo doesn’t actually indicate that he’s talking about 夜桜 (yo-zakura: “night viewing of cherry blossoms”). Anyway, I think the point gets across. This is one of Saigyo’s most famous poems, and it has an uncharacteristic swooning tone (not that there’s anything wrong with swooning occasionally). It antedates the practice of appreciating the cherry blossoms by getting mortally tanked and singing karaoke, rather than dying, beneath them.
Actually, I suppose they were getting tanked back then, too. I’m pretty sure they weren’t singing karaoke.