Translation Attempt
Just hearing the name of the flower, we begin to reconcile.
I don’t think I have enough cultural context to really go much further than that.
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Aha! You were right; this one was easy enough for me after all (though I still had to look up ケンカ 
). Here is my attempt at a translation:
花の名を聞いてケンカの仲なおり
Asking the name of
the flower for making peace
after a quarrel
It’s funny; I actually recently learned about 花言葉 in Japanese culture because of a couple recent pro wrestling feuds where it came up. Thanks to wrestling, I’ve learned that yellow roses can mean “jealousy” and “beauty”, but also can mean “friendship”, and daisies can mean “I feel the same as you”. Those are the only two that I’ve learned, haha, so I don’t know what flower would be relevant for this poem!
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Translation Attempt
- 花の名を聞いてケンカの仲なおり
はなのなをきいてけんかの・なかなおり
What is the name of
The flower that can fix a
Quarrel among friends?
I took a few liberties to get the 5-7-5 in English.
Some thoughts:
- 聞いて I’m translating here as “to ask” rather than “to hear”
- I think 花言葉 is implied a bit but I’m not sure whether there’s another phrase that applies to 花の名 that I’m missing
- I’m assuming なか is short for 仲間
- 直る in the i-form is what makes me think the sentence is about an object
Edit:
After reading the other entries, I like the way @fallynleaf phrased it as making peace.
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You learned 花言葉 but not ケンカ from pro wrestling?!! 
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Ahaha, that is a bit ironic, isn’t it
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That much I’m certain of. Interesting take with your first point: The wonderful thing about Japanese grammar is it’s never clear who is 聞いてing whom.
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Haha nice. I didn’t even think to look if it was a set phrase.
The terrible thing about Japanese grammar is that they’ll happily leave it ambiguous like that. 
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Translation Attempt
- 花の名を聞いてケンカの仲なおり
Going heavy into interpretation again…
“What’s the name of those flowers?”
Making up after a fight.
First, I chose 聞いて = ask, because I can’t come up with any idea if it means listen.
Maybe a couple had a fight, were ignoring each other, and one of them ask an innocuous question to break the ice again? Or maybe it’s a cute indirect way to say that one of them offered some flower to make up after a fight and we are reading the reaction of the other party (asking for the name of the flowers) ?
I wonder what kind of feeling the て-form in 聞いて is supposed to bring exactly …
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In this case I’m pretty sure it’s just conjunctive form, one happened after the other
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Well, I’m afraid none of the attempts quite hit the mark yesterday, though @Gorbit99 and @Arzar33 came closest in my opinion.
I have confirmed that my fundamental interpretation was correct: it’s a story of someone using flowers to apologize after a quarrel. It involves 花言葉 (saying things with flowers).
[Bravo: it also appears that few of you if any read my hint, even though it appears I was on the right track for once.]
I confirmed this by consulting with Google-sensei, who pointed me to the following:
(apparently even natives might not have understood this one on first read).
Unfortunately, I never actually submitted a translation attempt, so here’s my late submission (for zero points):
- 花の名を聞いてケンカの仲なおり
はなのなを・きいてケンカの・なかなおり
Upon asking the name of the flower / our quarrel ended
The linked page above offers several potential flowers, with their 花言葉 meanings.
But I don’t believe it was any of them. I think it was an Azalea, which apparently has three primary 花言葉 meanings:
-「節制」(moderation)
-「禁酒」(abstention from alcohol)
-「恋の喜び」(the joy of romantic love)
Thus my hypothetical, romanticized, fever dream interpretation of the poem is as follows:
Long ago, a husband came home drunk night after night, much to his wife’s displeasure. After one particularly egregious quarrel with his wife, he realized the errors of his ways and decided to apologize. The next night he came home completely sober and clean-shaven. He silently presented his wife with a single flower.
“What’s the name of this flower?” she asked.
“Azalea,” he replied. Just uttering the one word.
Well versed in the language of 花言葉 (yet mysteriously unable to recognize different varieties of flowers on sight) she broke into joyous tears, knowing instantly that her husband had given up alcohol and realized the the value of temperance and the joys of romantic love.
〜 終 〜
3 Likes
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Previous senryu
- 花の名を聞いてケンカの仲なおり
はなのなを・きいてケンカの・なかなおり
Upon asking (or hearing) the name of the flower / our quarrel ended
Notes:
-
This is my own translation. Not terribly poetic, I’m afraid.
-
It’s a story of someone using flowers to apologize after a quarrel.
-
It involves 花言葉 (saying things with flowers).
Current senryu challenge
Volume: whatever
- ナイターの拍手隣家と敵味方
No hints. A dictionary should be all the help you need with this one.
Remember to please use the spoiler tag with your translation attempts! Also, please include the reading in kana with your submission.
Everyone is encouraged to participate, no matter your level!
Online tools like dictionaries, sentence databases, and even AI translation engines are fair game and can be extremely helpful. Yomichan is particularly handy if you use the Chrome or Firefox browser.
Here’s the link to the spreadsheet with all the upcoming senryu as well as the translations to date.
Translation attempt
I worry that I may have scared people away by choosing my own translation that I never posted yesterday!
Hopefully it was clear that I had my tongue firmly in my cheek for most of my explanation!
I’m pretty sure my interpretation was accurate, but, as always, the selected translation is tentative and open to further discussion and debate.
Anyway, here’s my attempt for today (I’m pretty tickled with it):
- ナイターの拍手隣家と敵味方
ナイターの・あくしゅりんかと・てきみかた
Night-game applause from / my neighbor’s house informs me / — a friend but still foe a foe but still friend
I’ve caught the 5-7-5 in English bug!
Explanation:
The author can hear his neighbor applauding during a baseball night game on television. The timing means they are rooting for the other team, but knowing they are both baseball fans makes them friends.
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That was what I tried to imply in my translation, haha, but I guess I failed to make it clear . The person asked the name of the flower for reconciling after a quarrel, with the implication being that they then used that flower for that purpose.
I guess I’m not sold on the “upon asking/hearing the name of the flower” interpretation, because as you pointed out, that just doesn’t quite make sense. I think the person asked about the flower, and then got ahold of one and used it to reconcile (instead of the asking/hearing being what specifically triggered the reconciliation).
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I like your explanation, but I interpreted opposite, that they are fans of the same team, but still enemies as neighbors.
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This one was a little harder for me, but I thought I might as well give it a shot! Here was my attempt:
ナイターの拍手隣家と敵味方
late night game applause
can make neighboring houses
become friends or foes
I think my explanation is similar to yours. Depending on who your neighbors are rooting for, they could be your friends or your enemies (especially if they’re being really rowdy at night).
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Translation Attempt
- ナイターの拍手隣家と敵味方
ないたーの・はくしゅりんかと・てきみかた
When the neighbors applaud during a night game: frienemy
I went pretty literal on this and gave up on 5-7-5 in English. I also like how frienemy is pretty close to 敵味方 even if it is slang.
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Regarding
- 花の名を聞いてケンカの仲なおり
With the caveat that I’m often (usually? 
) wrong, I’m pretty confident that it was the writer that was apologizing and the other party (likely spouse) that was asking the name of the flower.
To me, it works either as “upon asking the name” or “upon hearing the name”:
-
upon asking — “As soon as she asked the name, I knew I was in the clear…”
-
upon hearing — “As soon as I told her the name (and/or/with associated 花言葉 meaning) I was in the clear…”
I think the poem parses as follows:
花のな — the flower's name
を聞いて — when she asked/heard
ケンカ — the fight/quarrel
の仲直り — was settled (we made up / became friends again)
I don’t think the writer was the one doing the 聞いてing.
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That’s awesome! It never occurred to me that it could be interpreted that way. <laugh>
My daughter says she interpreted it like I did:
The neighbor was rooting for the other team. Like 「敵、味方」.
I reordered my last stanza to make this clearer (doesn’t change the meaning nor ruin the 5-7-5!).
Oh, I love that!
How about the following 5-7-5?
Night-game applause from
my neighbor’s house — no longer
friend but frenemy
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Weblio says that 敵味方 is usually used to refer to not being able to distinguish friend from foe, or a state where friend and foe are jumbled together, so I think it could also refer to discovering that a neighbor you hate is actually a friend in the sense that they support the same team, haha, making their friend/enemy status unclear. I think it allows for both possibilities (your friend becoming your enemy because they root for the other team, or your enemy becoming your friend because they root for the same team).
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