Almost no roses can be seen in the garden that spreads out from the cafe window in the rose garden. The faintly flowing “Shiki no Uta (A Song of Four Seasons)” violently shake my heart.  This song, written and composed by the lyricist Toyohisa Araki in the early 1960s, became a big hit in the mid-1970s, ten years later.  Various singers have sung by then, but the songs sung by Yoko Seri spread all over the country in a blink of an eye.  Since NHK was broadcasting this song on overseas broadcasts, it became even more popular in China.  Yoko Seri was invited to China many times as a national singer and was presented with a Chinese dress by President Hu Jintao at the time, and has been friends from that time with the wife, Peng Liyuan, of Xi Jinping who is hated from all over the the world as if an enemy now. In this way, “Shiki no Uta” became a big bridge during the day.  Since Heine in this song was a friend of Marx, it seems to be related to having been loved by Mao Tse Tung or Lu Xun.

バラ園に建つカフェ窓から広がる園内にはもうほとんどバラも見えません。微かに流れてくる「四季の歌」がやけに心を震わせます。

1960年代前半に作詞家の荒木とよひさが作詞・作曲したこの歌は、10年後の1970年半ばにひょんなきっかけで大ヒット。それまでにもいろんな歌手が歌ってきましたが、芹洋子の歌う歌が瞬く間に全国に広がりました。NHKが海外放送でこの歌を流していた事もあって、中国でも大人気。芹洋子は国民的歌手と言う事で、何度も中国に招かれ、当時の胡錦濤主席からチャイナドレスを贈られたり、今や世界中から目の敵にされている習近平の夫人である彭麗媛とはその頃からの付き合いであったりで、「四季の歌」は日中の大きな架け橋になりました。この歌に出てくるハイネがマルクスと友達であったことから、毛沢東や魯迅にも愛されたことも関係がありそうです。

The trees in the park have also become quite colored.  Colorful flowers are also in bloom on the flowerbed.  The flower in the photo was in bloom.  The flower lips are stretched like an octopus.  It looks like salvia from the appearance of flowers and leaves, but it is a little different from Salvia Splendence that is usually seen.  I immediately searched with Google Lens of my smartphone and found that it is a variety called Salvia Doriciana, which has sweet and very nice scented leaves.  It is called Fruit Sage in Japan.  In Japan, sage refers to salvia for herbs, but sage is in English and salvia is in Latin, both of which are the same variety of flowers.

公園の木々もだいぶ色づいてきました。花壇にも色とりどりの花が咲いています。その中に咲いていたのが写真の花です。まるでタコのように花唇を伸ばしています。花の着き具合や葉からサルビアの様ですが、普通に見られるサルビア・スプレンデンスとちょっと違います。早速スマホのグーグル・レンズで検索したら、サルビア・ドリシアーナと言う品種で、甘く非常に良い香りの葉を持つサルビアだそうです。日本ではフルーツセージと呼ばれているそうです。セージとは日本ではハーブ用のサルビアを指すそうですが、セージは英語、サルビアはラテン語で、どちらも同じ品種の花です。

I received a lot of astringent persimmons from a farmer I knew.  I wanted to make a hanging persimmon once, so I had been asking for it for a long time.  When I was a kid, around this time of autumn, every farmhouse had a lot of hanging persimmons hanging under the eaves.  When I went to a friend of such a farmer, I often received dried persimmons, and I didn’t have all kinds of sweets like I do now, so I thought it was very sweet and delicious.  However, come to think of it, nothing is so sweet and delicious even now.  Even if I am a little concerned about the price, I often end up buying it. This is why I met the challenge of hanging persimmons. May I can make sweet and sweet dried persimmons.

知り合いの農家の方から渋柿を沢山いただきました。いちど吊るし柿を作ってみたくて、前々からお願いしていたわけです。子供の頃、秋のこの頃になると、どの農家にも軒下に沢山の吊るし柿がぶら下がっていたものです。そんな農家の友達の所に行くと、よく干し柿をいただき、今のようにいろんなお菓子もなかったので、なんて甘くて美味しいものだろうと思ったものです。しかし、よく考えてみると、今だってこんなに甘くて美味しいものはありません。多少お値段が気になっても、つい買ってしまうことがあります。と言うことで、吊るし柿に挑戦とあいなった次第。どうか、甘い甘い干し柿ができますように。

 The word “Kare Susuki (withered pampas grass)” inevitably gives the feeling of “shabby “. I think that the influence of popular songs such as “Sendou Kouta” and “Showa Kare Susuki” that we have often heard from long ago is great.  Both are depressing songs that make us feel the twilight of our life.  Susuki (Japanese pampas grass) is also called Obana and is one of the seven autumn herbs.  Senryu of Yokoi Yayu, a poet from the Edo period, also sang it as “if you look at the true nature of the ghost, it’s a beautiful Obana”. The English saying is “One always proclaims the wolf bigger than himself”.  Susuki  is also called Kaya, and was used as a material for the roofs thatched by Kaya and as feed for livestock by farmers.  In this way, the relationship between Susuki and people has been around since the days of Manyoshu, but Susuki is now exclusively one of the autumn landscapes.

枯れ薄と聞けばどうしても「うらぶれた」と言う感じが拭えません。昔からよく耳にした「船頭小唄」とか「昭和枯れすすき」と言った歌謡曲の影響が大きい様に思います。どちらも気が滅入る様な歌で、人生の黄昏れを感じさせます。枯れ薄の薄は尾花とも言い、秋の七草の一つです。江戸時代の俳人である横井也有の川柳にも『幽霊の正体見たり枯れ尾花』として歌い込まれています。幽霊と思い込んだものを良く見たら、なんと枯れ尾花だったことを詠んだ句です。また薄は茅(萱)とも呼ばれ、農家で茅葺屋根の材料に用いたり、家畜の餌として利用しました。この様に薄と人との関わりは、古くは万葉集の時代からあり、今ではもっぱら秋の景観の一つになっています。

There are three best times to see the roses: “spring roses” that begin to bloom when the cherry blossoms begin to fall, “summer roses” that bloom with hydrangeas, and “autumn roses” that are the forerunners of the autumn leaves season.  Speaking of roses, spring flowers are the most gorgeous and gorgeous.  The life of each flower is short because it blooms at the time when it gets hotter, but it looks gorgeous as a whole because it keeps blooming one after another and it blooms like a bell in one plant. While, autumn roses are lonely because there are only a few flowers that bloom in one plant, such as the return blooms of summer roses and roses that bloom in four seasons, and there is only one flower.  However, each rose is tasteful and rich in fragrance, and the appearance of it blooming and dying is perfect for the image of autumn, and there are many fans of autumn roses.

バラには、桜が散り始める頃から咲き始める「春バラ」、紫陽花と共に咲く「夏バラ」、紅葉シーズンの先駆けになる「秋バラ」の、三回の見頃があります。バラと言えば春の花と言うほど、やはり春のバラが一番豪華で華やかです。だんだん暑くなる時分に咲くので、一つ一つの花の寿命は短いですが、次から次へと咲き続けるのと、一つの株に鈴なりに咲くので、全体的に華やかにみえます。その点、秋バラは、夏バラの返り咲きとか、四季咲きのバラだけで、一株に咲く花の数は少なく、一輪だけと言うのもあって、寂しい感じです。しかし、一つ一つのバラは味わい深く、香りも豊かで、咲き切って枯れて行く姿は、秋のイメージにぴったりで、秋バラのファンも沢山います。

Normally, Nara Park, which is crowded with tourists at this time of year, is lonely this year.  The deer also seem to be lonely, wandering slowly between the autumnal trees.  No one gives the deer Shika Senbei, so they occasionally stop and eat the acorns and grass that have fallen to the ground. These deer are wild and have been designated as a national natural monument as a “Nara deer”.  These deer which have been deeply protected as deer gods of Kasuga Taisha Shrine since the Nara period gave rise to many tragedies as a result of excessive protection. For example, a child who was about to be eaten calligraphy paper by a deer threw a paperweight at the deer and killed it, and he was sentenced to “Ishikozume (punishment buried in the ground) and was killed. Beware that deer bowing is not because they are polite, but because it is a threat to demand Shika Senbei.

例年なら、この時期、観光客で賑わう奈良公園も、今年は人もまばらです。鹿も手持ち無沙汰な様子で、紅葉した木々の間をゆっくり徘徊しています。鹿煎餅をくれる人もなく、時折立ち止まって、地面に落ちたドングリや草を食べています。この鹿は野生で「奈良のシカ」として国の天然記念物に指定されています。奈良時代から春日大社の神鹿として厚く保護され、時には過剰な保護の結果、鹿に書道の半紙を食べられそうになった子供が、その鹿に文鎮を投げつけて死なせ、「石子詰め」の刑で死罪になると言う悲劇も生まれました。鹿のお辞儀も、礼儀正しいのではなく、煎餅を要求する威嚇ですから、ご用心下さい。

In Japan, it has long been a custom to leave the last one or a few persimmons after harvesting them.  There are two theories about this custom, one is to leave it with the meaning of “Bridging this year and next year” in the hope of a good harvest next year, and the other is that we have eaten enough so will leave the last persimmon for the birds. Some say it makes sense for both.  The sight of a few persimmons remaining on a persimmon tree that has completely lost its leaves in the clear autumn sky makes me feel a complex feeling of loneliness, gratitude, and hope.

木守柿と書いて、「こもりがき」とも「きもりがき」とも読みます。昔から柿の収穫を終えた後、最後の一個から数個を残しておくと言う習慣があります。この習慣には二つの説があって、一つは、また来年の豊作を願って「継なぐ」と言う意味を込めて残して置くと言う説、もう一つは、十分食べ尽くしたんだから最後は鳥達に残して置いてやろうと言う説です。両方の意味があると言う人もいます。澄み切った秋空に、すっかり葉を落とした柿の木に二、三個の柿が残っている光景を目にすると、寂しさと感謝と希望の混ざり合った複雑な気分になります。

There is a small bush alongside the nearby field, and Karasu-uri fruits are formed in a fixed place every year.  At this time of year, the vermilion-colored fruits stand out.  Until now, I was only interested in this fruit, but since I see that the flowers introduced on the website were mysterious flowers that were not ordinary flowers, I searched for them during the rainy season,  and finally found the flowers. It’s a really mysterious flower according to have been introduced, and it looks like wearing a lace dress.  Four months after that, the long-awaited fruit was in the same place.  It must be the fruit of that flower. It looks like a young nobleman born of a noble lady.  This is the best harvest this fall.

近くの畑の傍に小さな藪があって、毎年決まった場所に烏瓜ができます。この時期になると朱色に色づいた実が一際目立ちます。今まではこの実にしか関心がなかったのですが、サイトに紹介されていた花が、普通の花ではない妖しげな花で、ぜひ見たいものだと、梅雨時分に注意していたら、その花が見つかりました。紹介されていた通りの実に妖しげな花で、レースの夜会服を纏った様な姿です。それから四か月、待ちに待った実が同じ場所に成っています。きっとあの花の実に違いありません。貴婦人から生まれた貴公子と言った趣きです。この秋いちばんの収穫です。

The leading role in autumn is autumn colors. Recently, in addition to that, the “crazy bloom” of cherry blossoms has become a hot topic.  The topic has jumped in from all over Japan.  But there are actually two types of crazy cherry blossoms. One is the cherry blossoms such as Jugatsu-zakura, Huyu-zakura, Shiki-zakura, Kofuku-zakura, Hudan-zakura and Accorade , which are intentionally made to bloom in autumn by multiplying Oyama-zakura with other varieties. They are typical autumn-winter blooming cherry blossoms.  The other is the cherry blossoms such as Somei-Yoshino, which blooms only in spring, but it just blooms crazy.  This phenomenon caused because the “dormant breaking” hormone, which causes the flower buds formed in summer to sleep until the next spring and bloom at once in spring, becomes abnormal when the leaves are dropped by a typhoon or pest, and blooms in response to a slight temperature change. So to speak, it’s caused by a sleep disorder in cherry blossoms. The recent abnormal weather also seems to have a lot of do with it.

秋の主役は紅葉です。最近、それに加えて喧しく話題になっているのが桜の狂い咲き。このところ、日本のあちらこちらからその話題が飛び込んできます。桜の狂い咲きには、実は二通りあって、ひとつは、オオヤマザクラに他の品種を掛け合わせて、意図的に秋に咲かせるようにした桜、十月桜、冬桜、四季桜、小福桜、不断桜、アーコレードなどで、代表的な秋冬咲きの桜のことです。もう一つは、ソメイヨシノの様に春にしか咲かない桜が、それこそ狂い咲く桜です。これは、夏にできた花芽を翌春まで休眠させ、春に一気に花開かせる「休眠打破」ホルモンが、台風や害虫で葉が落とされると異常をきたし、僅かな気温変化に反応して開花する現象です。言ってみれば、桜の睡眠障害によって起こるんですね。最近の異常気象も無関係ではなさそうです。

In the greenhouse of the “Wakayama Botanical Garden Greenery Center” in Iwade City, Wakayama Prefecture, there is Kin-Shachi (Golden barrel cactus) with a diameter of 70 cm, which surprises visitors.  Native species of Kin-Shachi are found only in limited areas of Mexico and Latin America and are listed as “Critically Endangered” on the IUCN Red List.  It is worthy of being called the king of cactus, with a maximum height of 1 m, a circumference of 7 m, and a maximum lifespan of about 30 years.  The flower language is “transient dream” because the flowers only bloom after 20 years.  Cultivated varieties are very popular, with a diameter of about 10 cm for 10,000 yen, and a high one for nearly 200,000 yen.

和歌山県岩出市にある「和歌山県植物園緑化センター」の温室には、直径70cmの金鯱があって、来客の度肝を抜きます。金鯱の自生種はメキシコと中南米の限られた地域にしかなく、IUCNレッドリストの「絶滅寸前」に指定されています。サボテンの王様と言われるに相応しく、高さは最大で1m、周り7mに達し、寿命は最長で30年程度と推測されています。花は20年経って初めて咲くことから、花言葉は「儚い夢」。栽培種は人気が高く、直径10cm位の物で一万円、高い物になると二十万円近くします。