Names of Flowers

Every plant has its own botanic name which was given when it was first discovered.  The botanic name is universal, however, we don’t call plants by botanic name but by common name.  I often find it interesting to know how the common names are created  in the different culture, traditions, or regions.  They are mostly named from their appearance, legends, folklore, or mythology.

In these photos, are there any flowers or grasses you know the name?  I only know "dandelions/たんぽぽ", "clovers/クローバー", and "common vetch/カラスノエンドウ". 　 I like to listen to the chorus of tiny little nameless flowers and grasses.

Names of Flowers

by Misuzu Kaneko

I don’t know the names of flowers

other people know.

I know lots of names of flowers

No one else knows.

You see, I gave them to them...

Names I like to flowers I like.

The names for flowers people know

Someone gave them, anyhow.

 The sun alone, up in the sky,

Knows what each name really is.

So I call them what I like.

Just me....  Names I like....

(translated by D.P.Dutcher)

Posts about Poems by Misuzu Kaneko

One of the related posts about "names of flowers" for your interest: 

Japanese Crape Myrtle

Sky-blue Flowers - World of Misuzu Kaneko



nemophila "insignis blue"

Sky-Blue Flowers

(Misuzu Kaneko/translated by D.P.Dutcher)

Listen close, you little flowers,

Color of the blue, blue sky.

Around here there used to be

A pretty black-eyed girl,

Always looking at the sky

Like I was just doing now.

Dawn to dusk the blue sky

Shining in her eyes,

They turned one day to little flowers

That even now watch the sky.

If what I say is right, why,

Flowers, you must know

More about the real true sky

Than wise professors do.

I’m always looking at the sky

And thinking lots and lots

But what’s real and true I don’t know.

I bet you see it all and do.

Wise flowers don’t say a thing,

Just keep looking at the sky.

Those blue eyes, sky-dyed,

Still aren’t tired of watching.

(Original Japanese  空色の花　here)

 Blue lobelia in my garden, don't they look like blue butterflies?

Misuzu Kaneko’s poetry collection has been selling well since Higashi Nihon Earthquake.  For a month right after the earthquake and tsunami, almost all the advertisements by private companies on TV had been replaced by the ones by AC Japan, a non-profit organization, of which advertisements have promoted virtue and social manners.  Kaneko’s poem is used in one of them.  This is it.

Is it an Echo?

 When I say “Let’s play.”

I hear “Let’s play.”

When I say “Dumb!”

I hear  “Dumb!”

When I say “I won’t play with you any more.”

I hear “I won’t play."

Later I feel lonely and say “I’m sorry.”

I hear “I’m sorry.” 

Is that an echo? 
No, true to anyone. 

(Original Japanese  こだまでしょうか here)

The words we give come back to us like echoes.

Misuzu Kaneko wrote poems for children. Her poems are Japanese nusery rhyme: they are melodious and  rhythmical written in simple and gentle Japanese language spoken by young children.   She showed affection and sympathy toward things both animate and inanimate and looked at the world with child’s innocence and bright-eyed alertness like Sky-blue Flower.

Another post about Misuzu Kaneko and her poems:  Stars and Dandelions

To learn more about our world, click on the picture of My World on the sidebar.

"Stars and Dandelions"

Stars and Dandelions　( 星とたんぽぽ )

Misuzu Kaneko (1903-1930)

Deep down in the blue sky

Like pebbles on the ocean floor

They lie submerged till dark comes...

Stars unseen in the light of day.

You can't see them, still they're there.

Even things not seen are there.

Petals drop and withered dandelions

Hidden in cracks between roof tiles

Wait silently for spring to come...

Their strong roots unseen.

You can't see them, still they're there.

Even things not seen are there.

(translated by D.P.Dutcher)

Image via wikimedia

                                                                         

What we can see with our eyes is not everything that exists. The invisible things do exist sustaining the lives of all the living things.  They can be love, thoughtfulness, gratitude, attention, prayers, .......,  people we don't know directly, or earth's atmosphere, soil, sunlight and other cosmic power which embraces all the things on the Earth.  We tend to fail to appreciate or even notice why we are here and are able to live.

Kaneko chose dandelions along with stars.  Is it because dandelion flowers look like stars in the fields?  Stars in the heaven and stars in the daytime on the Earth.

 

About the importance of the invisible things, some people would quote from Saint-Exupery's:  "What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well."  or "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eyes."   I introduce "Hoshi to Tannpopo" as a Japanese example.

Misuzu Kaneko (1903-1930) is a female poet for children.  I like it when she touches the truth of existence both animate and inanimate, gazing at them gently and compassionately.  Her profound thoughts reach straight my heart because of  her simple and plain words.  I wonder if her soft spoken-Japanese like a gentle child is conveyed by translation to non-native speakers of Japanese.   

I got to know her poems in 2003 when the centenary of her birth was commemorated.  She passed away young at the age of 26.

 

Misuzu Kaneko's room

"Hoshi to Tannpopo" as well as "Suzume no Kasan" (Sparoow's Mother) is currently recited on TV advertisement of Hihakai Kensa (Nondestructive Testing) Ltd. in Japan.