Haiku by Chiyojo

To the person breaking off the branch
giving its fragrance
the plum blossom.

手折らるゝ人に薫るや梅の花 (taoraruru hito ni kaoru ya ume no hana): to the one who breaks off its branch, the plum blossom gives its scent. Chiyo gave the verse a title, and the title is the sense: 仇を恩にて報するといふ事を, *on repaying enmity with kindness*. 手折らるゝ人に is *to the person by whom it is broken off*, the passive making the plum the subject and the breaker the recipient; 薫るや is *it gives its scent*, with the や of exclamation; 梅の花 is the plum blossom, the first flower of spring. It is hers by her own book: 千代尼句集, printed in 1764 with her preface, eleven years before her death, carries the verse under that headnote in its plum section, and a Kyoto garden guide of 1799 kept the headnote beside it. A textbook of 1909 made it the model of a verse with two faces, the plum that scents the hand that broke it and the gentleman who repays harm with good, and the maxim books of those years filed it among rules of conduct. The critics were cooler, *light and deft* in 1899, *moralistic* in Blyth; the public kept it, and a 1940 primer calls it famous among ordinary people. On one design Master Takase brushes 薫る and 梅 in kana, as some of the Meiji printings did; the other three carry the kanji. The English is Timothy L. Jackowski's, made for Takase Studios.

Indeed the person breaking the plum branch committed a wrong, but still, the plum blossom gave of itself.

The breaking of the branch seems so masculine and the plum blossom giving its fragrance seems so feminine. I can't help but think that Chiyojo was referring to being treated unkindly by a man she cared about but rather than responding in kind, she responded with feminine kindness.

Calligraphy Notes:

1) The character ゝ repeats the last character. So るる and るゝ are both read ruru. Master Takase uses both in the designs making her selection based on which she thinks will look and balance better.

2) 薫る (kaoru) meaning "to smell sweet; to be fragrant" is written at least three different ways 香る, 薫る, and 馨る. We use the second.

Translation Notes:

手折らるゝ 人に薫るや 梅の花

1) "Chiyojo" also went by Chiyo-ni. According to Patricia Donegan, "Chiyo-ni's given birthname was not Chiyo-ni but 'Chiyo,' meaning 'a thousand years'; the feminine suffix 'jo' was added, so she was sometimes called 'Chiyo-jo' until she changed her name to 'Chiyo-ni,' when she added the suffix 'ni' (nun). However, like many poets in Japan, she used many pen names in her lifetime."

Blyth ascribes the poem to Chiyojo 千代女. Miyamori ascribes the poem to Chiyo-Ni 千代尼.

2) 手折らるゝ (taoraruru) is from the verb 手折る (taoru) meaning "(1) to break by hand (e.g. a flower); to break off (a twig); to pluck (a flower, a bud); (2) to make a young woman one's own thing".

3) 人 (hito) means "person" and not necessarily a "man". Japanese is most often gender neutral. And, conveniently, ambiguous.

4) 梅の花 (ume no hana) is commonly translated as "plum blossoms". 梅 (ume) meaning "plum; Japanese apricot; prunus mume" and 花 (hana). As an interesting side note, the botanical name is "prunus mume" and, at one point, ume was read mume.