Why were the flowers born so beautiful and yet so hapless? Insects can sting, and even the meekest of beasts will fight when brought to bay. The bird whose plumage is sought to deck some bonnet can fly from its pursuer, the furred animal whose coat you covet for your own may hide at your approach. Alas! The only flower known to have wings is the butterfly; all others stand helpless before the destroyer. If they shriek in their death agony their cry never reaches our hardened ears. We are ever brutal to those who love and serve us in silence, but the time may come when, for our cruelty, we shall be deserted by these best friends of ours. Have you not noticed that the wild flowers are becoming scarcer every year? It may be that their wise men have told them to depart till man becomes more human. Perhaps they have migrated to heaven. 　 　 　美しい花の命はどうして短いのでしょう。虫は刺せます。どんなおとなしい動物でも 追いつめられれば戦います。羽根を帽子の飾りにされる鳥は飛んで逃げられます。毛皮 をとられる動物は隠れることもできます。そう、唯一羽根のある花は蝶のみ。他の花は 破壊者を前にしても、ただ立ちつくすだけです。 　死の絶叫もわれわれには聞こえません。愛を持って何も言わずにつくしてくれるもの に我々は冷たい態度です。やがては親友に見放されるときがきます。野の花が年々少な くなることに気がつきませんか。彼らの中の賢者が、人間が人間らしくなるまで姿を隠 そうと言ったかも知れません。多分天国へ引っ越したのです。

　

Much may be said in favour of him who cultivates plants. The man of the pot is far more humane than he of the scissors. We watch with delight his concern about water and sunshine, his feuds with parasites, his horror of frosts, his anxiety when the buds come slowly, his rapture when the leaves attain their lustre. In the East the art of floriculture is a very ancient one, and the loves of a poet and his favourite plant have often been recorded in story and song. With the development of ceramics during the Tang and Sung dynasties we hear of wonderful receptacles made to hold plants, not pots, but jewelled palaces. A special attendant was detailed to wait upon each flower and to wash its leaves with soft brushes made of rabbit hair. It has been written that the poeny should be bathed by a handsome maiden in full costume, that a winterplum should be watered by a pale, slender monk. In Japan, one of the most popular of the No dances, the Hachinoki, composed during the Ashikaga period, is based upon the story of a impoverished knight, who, on a freezing night, in lack of fuel for a fire, cuts his cherished plants in order to entertain a wandering friar. The friar is in reality no other than Hojo Tokiyori, the Haroun-Al-Raschid of our tales, and the sacrifice is not without its reward. This opare never fails to draw tears from a Tokio audience even to-day. 　 　 　草木を栽培する人に対しては、いろいろ贔屓もできます。鉢植えを楽しむ人は花鋏で 花を切る人よりはるかに人間的です。彼が、水、陽あたり、寄生虫、霜、芽の出方等に 気を配り、葉に艶が出たといって喜ぶありさまは、微笑ましいことです。 　東洋における花の栽培は歴史が古く、物語や詩にもよく花の名前が登場します。唐宋 時代にはやきものが発達し、素晴らしい植木鉢がつくられましたがそれは、立派すぎて 宝石で飾りたてた御殿のようなものでした。花にはそれぞれ専門の世話係りがかしづき 、兎の毛のブラシで葉を磨きました。牡丹には盛装した侍女が水をやり、寒梅には痩せ 型の修道僧が水をやるものとされていたことの記録が残っています。 　日本では足利時代の能の作品に、「鉢の木」の物語があります。貧しい武士が凍える ような寒い夜に、旅の僧を暖めるための薪がなく、秘蔵の鉢の木を切るという筋です。 このモデルは、日本のハルン・アル・ラシッドといわれる北条時頼です。そしてこの犠 牲は必ず報われるのです。この能は今でも東京の能舞台で上演され、観客の涙を誘って います。

　

Great precautions were taken for the preservation of delicate blossoms. Emperor Huensung, of the Tang dynasty, hung tiny golden bells on the branches in his garden to keep off the birds. He it was who went off in the springtime with his court musicians to gladden the flowers with soft music. A quaint tablet, which tradition ascribes to Yoshitsune, the hero of our Arthurian legends, is still extant in one of the Japanese monasteries. It is a notice put up for the protection of a certain wonderful plum-tree, and appeals to us with the grim humour of a warlike age. After referring to the beauty of the blossoms, the inscription says: "Whoever cuts a single branch of this tree shall forfeit a finger therefor." Would that such laws could be enforced nowadays against those who wantonly destroy flowers and mutilate objects of art! 　Yet even in the case of pot flowers we are inclined to suspect the selfishness of man. Why take the plants from their homes and ask them to bloom mid strange surroundings? Is it not like asking the birds to sing and mate cooped up in cages? Who knows but that the orchids feel stifled by the artifical heat in your conservatories and hopelessly long for a glimpse of their own Southern skies? 　 　 　唐の玄宗皇帝は花の保護に工夫をしました。小鳥を花に近づけないため、庭の木に金 の鈴をつけておき、春になると花を楽しませようと宮廷楽士に優しげな音楽を演奏させ ました。 　わが国では、アーサー王伝説の主人公ともいえる源義経が書いたという言い伝えの変 わった高札が、ある寺に残されています。それは１本の素晴らしい梅の木を保護するた めに立てられたおふれですが、戦国時代の残酷なユーモアが強烈です。この花の美しさ を述べた後に、「この枝を一枝切れば、指１本を切られる」と書いてあります。現在で も、花をやたらに切り、芸術作品を破壊する人たちにはこのような法律が必要です。鉢 植えの花の場合でも、人間の身勝手を感じます。なぜ花をもとの住みかから動かして、 慣れない環境で花を咲かせようとするのでしょうか。ちょうど小鳥を篭に押し込めて、 鳴かせたり、繁殖させたりするのと同じです。 　温室の暖房で息がつまり、懐かしい南の空を一目みたいと思っている蘭の心など誰も 気にとめません。

　

The ideal lover of flowers is he who visits them in their native haunts, like Taoyuenming, who sat before a broken bamboo fence in converse with the wild chrysanthemum, or Linwosing, losing himself amid mysterious fragrance as he wandered in the twilight among the plum-blossoms of the Western Lake. 'Tis said that Chowmushih slept in a boat so that his dreams might mingle with those of the lotus. It was this same spirit which moved the Empress Komio, one of our most renowned Nara sovereigns, as she sang. "If I pluck thee, my hand will defile thee, O Flower! Standing in the meadows as thou art, I offer thee to the Bubbhas of the past, of the present, of the future." 　 　 　真の花好きとは、その生えている場所を訪れる人です。壊れた竹垣の前に座って野菊 に語りかけた詩人陶淵明や、黄昏の西湖の梅の間を巡って、えもいわれぬ香りに我を忘 れた林和靖。そしてまた周茂叔は蓮の花と渾然一体の夢を見るべく小舟に乗って眠った と言われています。このような精神が奈良朝の光明皇后の心をとらえ、「私がおまえを 摘めば、花よ、私の手がおまえを汚すことになる。私はおまえと共に草原に佇んで、過 去現在未来の仏陀におまえを捧げよう」と謡いました。

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