A Song on Forsythia to the tune of Wind in the Pines

About 18 of the SBJ poems are about flowers. I’ve previously posted A Chrysanthemum at the End and A Flower, which used the aging flower to talk about human life. In A Song on Forsythia the flower is still used to talk about people, but in a different way.

The name okdori ilha could refer to forsythia or winter jasmine, both yellow flowers that bloom in late Winter or early Spring. This poem showers the flower with backhanded praise, acknowledging its beauty but deriding its simplicity and eagerness.

	okdori ilha-i [迎春花] uculen		A Song on Forsythia
	Staatsbibliothek 14.4 (View Online)
	manggai buyasi sure,		Merely simpleminded,
	sahiba teile,		only fawning,
	niyengniyeri de tosohoi,		as it ambushes Spring,
	bucetei saišabume,		and flatters it to death.
5	guwele mele saikan,		Furtively, stealthily pretty,
	dede dada hojo,		frivolously lovely.
	dembei dedenggi boco,		The silliest color,
	baibi gicuke,		simply disgraceful,
	halukan ici kani,		in league with the warm weather,
10	te uthai kūwasa cokto,		so now boastful and arrogant,
	banjitai oilohon,		superficial by nature,
	funiyagan ajige.		of little forbearance.