Petals of Sakura. Flowers in Japanese Painting and Poetry

The aesthetic concept of “setsugekka” (lit.: snow, moon, flowers) — one of the key ideas in all of Japanese culture. And there is a special term for the process of admiring the beauty of flowers — “hanami,” which has no equivalent in the languages of other nations. Perhaps it is flowers that are the key to all of Japanese culture... This collection features the finest examples of classical Japanese poetry, consisting of 150 poems by eighty-two poets from the 2nd to the 20th centuries, united by a common theme — flowers and the harmony of nature. For centuries, Japanese poets and painters competed with each other, celebrating the beauty of blooming sakura, orange trees, chrysanthemums, carnations, irises, lotuses, and the amazing “flower of Fuji” — wisteria... Through their collective efforts, they created a unique “language of flowers,” the symbolism of which differs from the European. Our anthology unites Japanese poetry, painting, and the beauty of nature. We have gathered the best poems of Japanese poets related to the theme of flowers — in translations by Alexander Brandt, Konstantin Balmont, Nikolai Pozdnyakov, Nikolai Azbelev, Nikolai Novich, Vasily Mendrin, Arkady Press, Pavel Sukhotin, Sergey Alymov, Benedikt Mart and others. Accompanying them are engravings and masterpieces of Japanese “flower” painting.