ひさかたのひかりのどけき春の日にしづ心なく花の散るらん                                     紀友則

hisakata no hikari nodokeki harunohi ni shizugokoro naku hana no chiruran 

the light filling the air
is so mild this spring day
only the cherry blossoms
keep falling in haste—
why is that so?                                                                                                                                                   

Ki no Tomonori

Michael Dylan Welch is pleased to announce that he and Emiko Miyashita have a waka (tanka) translation appearing on the back of a U.S. postage stamp, in an edition of 100,000,000 copies, that will be released on March 24, 2012 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the cherry trees in Washington, D.C. The translation is from their 2008 artbook, 100 Poets: Passions of the Imperial Court  (Tokyo: PIE Books). He lives in Sammamish, Washington.

You can read more about the stamp at Beyond the Perf and at the USPS.com website.

ADDENDUM APRIL 11:  The initial print run for this stamp was actually 100,000,000 copies. The stamp has been sellling more than a million copies a day since it was released on March 24, and the postal service has just announced a reprint of at least 50,000,000 more copies, making this one of the best-selling U.S. postage stamps in decades. And hopefully everyone who buys them will enjoy the tanka poem on the back. The Washington Post has a story about this stamp’s sales exceeding expectations.