Standing up smartly - by Tomihiro Hoshino (translated by Kyoko and Gavin BantocK)

 

The poet uses a lily magnolia as a metaphor in the poem. First, let us look at what magnolias, specifically lily magnolias, are:

a.     The magnolia tree is considered a symbol of magnificence due to its great height and large flowers

b.     The trees bear large fragrant pink, purple, white and even yellow tulip- or star-shaped flowers in the spring

c.      The flower in general is considered a symbol of nobility, perseverance, and love of nature.

d.     Due to their soft subtle colours and strong appearance, the flower is considered a symbol of femininity and gentleness in the Southern states of the USA.

e.      During the War Between the States, southern women were often called steel magnolias due to their seeming fragility which hid a strong personality. 

f.       Lily magnolias are native to southwestern China, specifically Sichuan and Yunnan.

g.     They are cultivated for ornamental purposes in China, Japan, Europe and North America.

h.     The script on the left – is it Chinese?

i.       In the Chinese culture, the magnolia tree is said to symbolize purity and nobility.

j.       The tree is also thought to possess healing powers

 Keep these in mind, when we look at the poem:

Standing up smartly

only at the beginning

but then her colour fades

and she bows her head

to the mercy of the wind

Yet I like the lily magnolia

Blooming under the blue sky

She is like me

Somehow

The poem consists of three stanzas. the poem in its entirety is shaped like a bud. Thus, one might call it a shaped poem. Each stanza, a sentence; the first and the third use run-on line lines or enjambment while the 2^nd a single end stop line. The first stanza is compound sentence made of three clauses joined by two coordinating conjunctions – signaling connection and passage of time. 

Standing up smartly

only at the beginning

but then her colour fades

and she bows her head

to the mercy of the wind

The subject and the auxiliary verb in the first clause of the first stanza is withheld by the poet most probably to maintain rhythm and to give the subject a brief aura of mystery. The arrangement of the lines give the poem the appearance of a shaped verse: the poem looks like a magnolia bud. The poetic persona observes a magnolia in full bloom. She offers what she sees as a visual image for the reader to see, too.  However, in the first stanza the poet hides the fact that she is talking about a flower. She uses the personal pronoun “she” to refer to the flower making the reader imagine that she is talking about a young woman. It is in the second stanza that we come to know that the poet was referring to a flower with the pronoun “she”. In that sense the poet has personified the flower as a young woman by referring to it as ‘she’. Like any youthful thing the magnolia is “standing up smartly”. Interestingly, the poet uses the present participle with a hidden auxiliary in the opening line. The present continuous is used to signal temporariness. So it was only “at the beginning” the flower stands smartly. With the passage of time the youthful flower enters her middle age. The sudden shock experienced at the signs of aging is signaled by the use of the “but then”. As the aging flower bows down to the law of transience, her colour fades.The use of the word “only” ads emphasize to the sense of transience permeating the first stanza. The connection between fading of colours and the need to bow to the wind is signaled by the use of the conjunction “and” which is used to connect two clauses when two actions happen one after the other. In the next two verbs of the first stanza the poet uses the present simple probably to signal that he is talking about a universal truth – aging and death is a fate shared by all living and nonliving things. The aged flower bows her head [down] to the mercy of the wind – the flower accepts what is inevitable. One might call this as not putting up a fight while I see this as giving into the inevitable - gracefully. The reference to “mercy” of the wind can be read as death; death is in fact an act of kindness to a thing past its prime. The flower must fall for the fruit to come out. So there is quiet dignity in the flower in its last moments - it does not give into histrionics when the end is near – it has understood the meaning of life.  

The second stanza is a single end stop line.      

Yet I like the lily magnolia

The poetic persona declares her partiality to the lily magnolia. The use of “yet” to qualify her liking signals that she sees some reason to not to like the flower. Could it be the flower’s passive acceptance of the inevitable? Does she think of it as a weakness of the flower? Whatever it might be, the use of the word “yet” hints at reservations and the poet’s resolution to like the flower despite those reservations.

The third stanza consists of one run on sentence divided into three lines

Blooming under the blue sky

she is like me

somehow

The poet offers the reader a magnificent picture of a lily magnolia in full bloom contrasted by the blueness of the sky. At such moments, the poet sees similarities between the magnolia and her. Yet, these similarities are not clear or articulable to the poetic persona: she is like me/ somehow. The poetic persona seems to imply that both the flower and she need good sunny weather for them to bloom.