Haiku #12: 真っ赤

There were other flowers I wanted to reference in this week’s haiku, but this wouldn’t be a haiku if I went on with that plan.

Instead of writing “gardenia” or kuchinashi (クチナシ or 梔子), I wrote “mouthless” or kuchi na (クチ無 or 口無), which also also be written as kuchinashi. In hanakotoba, the gardenia represents secret love, which you’d try to keep away from word of mouth or gossip. Though a garden and a gardenia are two different things, hey now.

Instead of hina, joshi was going to be written for “girl” in the first draft, but I changed it to reference some flowers. Hina also can mean “young chick,” which has its own symbolism. I considered having daisies or hinagiku being used, but what use would I have comparing an innocent flower to a secret flower?

Poppies or hinageshi represent fun-loving, and I thought I could squeeze a pun with with the Japanese word for scenery or keshiki. In western culture, poppies also symbolize sleep, peace, and death. If you are familiar with my on-and-off WIP Life in Primroses, you’d notice how fitting the flower is for the story, yet it’s not the flower I’m using to carry the main story — I did, however, attempt to write a short fiction with poppies. I’m fond of Monet’s poppy paintings — you’ll see my take in an old post — and Sylvia Plath’s works, so the flower carries a lot of weight for me. It is simply a flower I cannot raise myself to.

＊＊＊