白浜海岸のあたりで、オオマツヨイグサが咲きはじめました。
いよいよ、島にも本格的な夏の訪れです。

もう少しすると、島のあちらこちらがこの黄色い花で彩られます。

夕方に花を開き、翌朝にはしぼんでしまうことから、「一夜花」とも呼ばれます。
同じ仲間の「月見草」がすでに日本に入っていたため、この花は「待宵草」と名付けられました。
そして花が大きいことから、「オオマツヨイグサ」と呼ばれています。

夜にひっそりと咲くその姿から、花言葉は「打ち明けられない恋」。

詩人・竹久夢二は、この花を「宵待草」と詩いました。

待てど暮らせど　来ぬ人を
宵待草の　やるせなさ
今宵は月も　出ぬそうな

夕暮れの海辺に咲くオオマツヨイグサを眺めていると、
どこか切なく、懐かしい気持ちになります。

**Flowers of Yagishiri Island

Large Evening Primrose (Oenothera glazioviana)**

The Large Evening Primrose has begun to bloom near Shirahama,
a sure sign that summer has finally arrived on Yagishiri Island.

Before long, the island will be filled with these bright yellow flowers.

Its blossoms open in the evening and fade by the following morning,
earning it the name of a “one-night flower.”

A related flower, the Tsukimisō (“Moon-viewing Primrose”), had already been introduced to Japan, so this species came to be called Matsuyoisō—the “Evening-Waiting Primrose.”
Because its flowers are larger, it is known as the Large Evening Primrose.

Blooming quietly in the night, its language of flowers is
“an unspoken love.”

The poet Yumeji Takehisa immortalized this flower in his poem Yoimachigusa (“Waiting for Evening”):

Waiting and waiting for one who never comes,
Such is the sadness of the evening primrose.
It seems that even the moon will not rise tonight.

Standing beside the sea at dusk and looking at these flowers,
one cannot help but feel a touch of longing and nostalgia.