山笑ふ【やまわらう】 yama warau hills/mountains smile/laugh [metaphorical: i.e., are covered with budding and/or blossoming trees] (all spring)
- 笑う山【わらうやま】 warau yama （わらふやま）, smiling/laughing hills/mountains
地理【ちり】 chiri The Earth
水温む【みずぬるむ】 mizu nurumu （みづぬるむ）, waters warm up (mid spring)
- 温む水【ぬるむみず】 nurumu mizu warmer waters
春の海【はるのうみ】 haru no umi spring sea (all spring)
春田【はるた】 haru ta spring paddy field(s) (all spring)
- 春の田【はるのた】 haru no ta rice paddies in spring
This refers to rice paddies in the spring, before the seedlings have been planted. Over the surface of some paddies, "vetch" (紫雲英【げんげ】 genge) will be blooming, and others will be roughly plowed. Later, as paddies are prepared for plowing, the ridges repaired between them, the paddies raked, and so on, the paddies become busy with farm workers. As wet paddies, they will shine brilliantly. But when one speaks of "spring paddies" there are hardly any people out there; everywhere feelings of loneliness and silence remain. (As the first example below makes clear, simply naming the spring paddies of a significant place--or one's native place--becomes a moving paean to spring melancholy.)
[Michinoku is the old name for the northeastern provinces of Honshu, in which the region around Sendai was the fief of the poweful Daté family.]
Now darkened under snow clouds, in Noto too spring has come. That said, the wind is still cold, and usually when one thinks of brightness, it grows cloudy. But, as the fields of "One Thousand Paddies" grew dark, over the sea the sun brightened. Here and there, plowmen in the paddy fields take notice. (Noto is a large peninsula on Honshu's north coast, in the Sea of Japan.)
みちのくの伊達の郡の春田かな
富安風生
michinoku no date no kōri no haruta kana
ah--the spring paddies
of Daté country
in Michinoku
Tomiyasu Fūsei
野の虹と春田の虹と空に合ふ
水原秋櫻子
no no niji to haruta no niji to sora ni au
the rainbow of the moor
and the rainbow of the spring paddies
meet in the sky
Mizuhara Shūōshi
許されし水狂奔す春の田を
相馬遷子
yurusareshi mizu kyōhon su haru no ta o
released
the water rushes wildly
into the spring paddies
Souma Senshi
湿り香の大陽を置き春田鋤く
佐藤鬼房
shimeri ka no taiyō o oki haruta suku
ignoring the sun's
damp aroma--I spade
the spring paddy
Satō Onifusa
大仏へ抜ける裏道春田かな
久本十美二
daibutsu e nukeru uramichi haruta kana
on the back roads
leading to the Great Buddha--
these spring paddies
Hisamoto Tomiji
能登の海春田昃れば照りにけり
清崎敏朗
noto no umi haruta kagereba terinikeri
the sea at Noto
as the spring paddies darkened
began to shine
Kiyozaki Toshio
春泥【しゅんでい】 shundei spring mud (all spring)
- 春の泥【はるのどろ】 haru no doro mud of spring
残雪【ざんせつ】 zansetsu remaining snow (mid spring)
- 残る雪【のこるゆき】 nokoru yuki lingering snow
- 雪残る【ゆきのこる】 yuki nokoru snow lingers
- 雪の名残【ゆきのなごり】 yuki no nagori traces of snow
This is the snow left when spring has come. It means the snow that originally fell and piled up all winter long and remains here and there after spring has finally come and it begins to melt. In addition, though there are not many places with lots of snow, there are places where snow fell and stayed at the end of winter. Downtown, snow disapears quickly, but in back of homes and the shade of bushes, on shaded mountainsides and under trees, and also along distant mountain ranges, lingering snow glitters. When snow melts off in spring, a "snow crevice" may hold snow in a crack, and continue to drip after other places are dry.
There is a ridge of remaining snow on the high mountains, and beyond that the broad starry sky is another sign of spring; they create the feeling of moisture here and there. The expression "looks so fresh" (wakawakashi) shows how the arrival of spring gladdens the heart.
雪残る頂一つ国境
正岡子規
yuki nokoru itadaki hitotsu kunizakai
snow lingers
on a single summit:
the boundary
Masaoka Shiki
一枚の餅のごとくに雪残る
川端茅舎
ichimai no mochi no gotoku ni yuki nokoru
just like
a single rice cake
snow remains
Kawabata Bōsha
残雪やごうごうと吹く松の風
村上鬼城
zansetsu ya gōgō to fuku matsu no kaze
remaining snow . . .
roaring through the pines
the wind
Murakami Kijō
滝みだれ大残雪にひびき落つ
水原秋櫻子
taki midare daizansetsu ni hibiki otsu
tumbling cascade
in the large remaining snowbank
an echo falls
Mizuhara Shūōshi
残雪光袋に透いて菓子の影
中村草田男
zansetsukō fukuro ni suite kashi no kage
light of remaining snow
in a translucent bag
shadows of pastry
Nakamura Kusatao
残雪の尾根星ぞらの若々し
千代田葛彦
zansetsu no one hoshizora no wakawakashi
remaining snow
on the ridge the starry sky
looks so fresh
Chiyoda Kuzuhiko
雪解【ゆきどけ】 yukidoke snowmelt (mid spring)
- 雪解【ゆきげ】 yukige snowmelt
- 雪解水【ゆきげみず】 yukige mizu snow meltwater
- 雪解川【ゆきげがわ】 yukigegawa snowmelt river
- 雪解野【ゆきげの】 yukigeno snowmelt meadow(s)/field(s)
- 雪解風【ゆきげかぜ】 yukige kaze snowmelt breeze/wind
- 雪解雫【ゆきげしずく】 yukige shizuku snowmelt droplets
- 雪解光【ゆきげこう】 yukige-kō snowmelt radiance
雪しろ【ゆきしろ】（雪代） yukishiro snowmelt runoff (mid spring)
- 雪汁【ゆきじる】 yukijiru slush [literally "snow soup"]
- 雪濁り【ゆきにごり】 yuki nigori snowmelt-muddy [bodies of water]
- 雪しろ水【ゆきしろみず】 yukishiro mizu snowmelt runoff water
薄氷【うすらい】 usurai （うすらひ）, thin ice (early spring)
- 薄氷【うすごうり】 usugōri thin ice
- 春の氷【はるのこうり】 haru no kōri spring ice
流氷【りゅうひょう】 ryūhyō （りうひょう） ice floe(s) (mid spring)
- 氷流るる【こおりながるる】 kōri nagaruru （りうひょう）, ice flows
