Haiku by 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.

Calligraphy Notes:

1) We have used the Japanese from Miyamori though we do see different ways of writing this same poem. Specifically some write urayamashi in kanji as 羨まし美しうなりて散る紅葉. And there is another reading to the poem which uses narite in hiragana rather than natte in kanji. For example, うらやまし美しうなりて散る紅葉. We avoid this ambiguity by using 成て which can be read either narite or natte.

Translation Notes:

1) うらやまし urayamashi is today written 羨ましい (urayamashii) or うらやましい (urayamashii - note the extra i) and means "envious; jealous; enviable".

2) 美しう成て is read utsukushuu natte but the actual romaji is utsukushiu natte. Today we would write 美しくなって or 美しく成って which is utsukushiku natte. 美しく (utsukushiku) is from 美しい (utsukushii) meaning "beautiful; lovely". And 成って (natte) is from 成る (naru) meaning "to become; to change into; to be completed".

3) 散る (chiru) means "to fall; to scatter;". The implication is also "to die a noble death", but the word by itself does not have this meaning.

4) 紅葉 (momiji) means "maple leaves; autumn colors; red leaves". 紅 means "deep red; crimson" and 葉 means "leaf; leaves". Notice this can be read kouyou meaning "autumn colors" or momiji referring more specifically to the maple leaf.