Drawing the First Water of the New Year
Suzuki Harunobu Japanese
Not on view
Symbols of spring abound in this poem. A young couple draws the “first water of the New Year” (wakamizu) in decorated buckets; pine saplings sit by the doorway, and plum blossoms burst into bloom. The scene also calls to mind an episode from the tenth-century Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari) known as the “Well curb,” in which young lovers recall measuring their heights by the well as children. It reads
Haru o hete
kyō tatematsuru
wakamizu ni
chitose no kage ya
matsu ukamuramu .
As spring arrives,
today, we offer to the gods
the year’s first drawn water
attached with pine shoots
as from time immemorial
—Trans. John T. Carpenter
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