Shiko - How enviable, Turning beautiful then falling, maple leaves

うらやまし美しう成て散る紅葉 (urayamashi utsukushū natte chiru momiji): enviable, to turn beautiful and then to fall: the maple leaves. うらやまし is how I envy, enviable, and the verse opens on the feeling and gives its object last; 美しう成て is having become beautiful, 美しう the classical form of 美しく; 散る紅葉 is the maple leaves that fall, the autumn season word. It is Shikō's on the record of two Tokyo anthologies of 1909 that set his name beside it, and Miyamori and Yasuda agree; nothing older has been found. Miyamori read it through the wild cherry that scatters at the height of its beauty, the samurai's flower, and the maxim better a jewel broken than a tile whole: the poet envies the maple for going the same way. The envy comes first, and the leaves last. The English is Timothy L. Jackowski's, made for Takase Studios.