H3018 Haiku by Ryota - They spoke no words ...
by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

They spoke no words.
The visitor, the host,
And the white chrysanthemum.

Ryota

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Cursive

Cursive Design

Semi-Cursive

(5 designs in catalog)

They spoke no words.
The visitor, the host,
And the white chrysanthemum. ^[1]

mono iwazu kyaku to teishu to shiragiku to	ものいはず客と亭主と白菊と
ryouta	蓼太

One can imagine this as a setting for a tea ceremony - the host and the guest appreciate the white chrysanthemums in its place of honor.

Miyamori writes, "Both the host and the guest who is invited to view the white chrysanthemums are smitten by their beauty and gazing at them speechless. It is quite interesting that 'white chrysanthemums' are imagined to be silent as well as 'host and 'guest'."^[2]

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R. H. Blyth suggests the translation:

They spoke no word,The host, the guest,And the white chrysanthemum.^[3]

Asataro Miyamori suggests the translation:

They spoke not: host and guest
And white chrysanthemums. ^[4]

Harold G. Henderson suggests the translation:

From them no words come:
the guest, the host, the white
chrysanthemum. ^[5]

Calligraphy Notes:

1) Students of Japanese know that the grammatical particle "は" is written using the hiragana for "ha" though it is always pronounced "wa" ("wa" is written in hiragana as "わ"). In these designs an archaic form is used so instead of the modern いわず (iwazu), it uses いはず (though it is still read iwazu).

Translation Notes:

1) もの (mono) - meaning "something".

2) いはず (iwazu) - not spoken. Negative of the verb 言う (iu) meaning "to say; to speak";

ものいはず thus becomes "nothing was spoken".

3) 客 (kyaku) - meaning "visitor; guest".

4) と (to) - meaning "and". Henderson writes, "In any obvious series a to may be omitted. But it cannot be omitted if it is desired to emphasize that two or three or more things are on an absolute equality." ^[6] And he goes on to give this haiku by Ryota as a prime example.

5) 亭主 (teishu) - meaning "master; lord; host".

6) と (to) - see (4) above.

7) 白菊 (shiragiku) - meaning "white chrysanthemum".

8) と (to) - see (4) above.

Recommended Reading:

References:

^[1] Translation by Timothy L. Jackowski, Takase Studios, LLC.

^[2] Miyamori, Asataro (1932). An Anthology of Haiku Ancient and Modern. Tokyo: Maruzen Company, Ltd. 502.

^[3] Blyth, R. H. (1982) Haiku, Volume Four: Autumn-Winter. Tokyo. The Hokuseido Press. 1120.

^[4] Miyamori, Asataro (1932). An Anthology of Haiku Ancient and Modern. Tokyo: Maruzen Company, Ltd. 502.

^[5] Henderson, Harold G. (1958) An Introduction to Haiku. United States of America. Doubleday Anchor Books. 189.

^[6] Henderson, Harold G. (1958) An Introduction to Haiku. United States of America. Doubleday Anchor Books. 119.

Related Sites:

Jeffrey's Japanese <-> English Dictionary - This is an independent dictionary based on the Edict data maintained by Dr. Jim Breen of Monash University.

Haiku Source - A Selected Collection of Japanese Haiku - Includes a few English translations

Wikipedia - Haiku - Overview of Haiku including brief biographies of Japan's most influential poets

Moonset Literary Newspaper - Dedicated to the Poetic and Visual Studies of Japanese Art Forms

Copyrights are retained by the original authors and used here under the Fair Use Doctrine.
We encourage you to support the authors, as we have, by purchasing the referenced works.

H3018 Haiku by Ryota - They spoke no words ... by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

H3018 Haiku by Ryota - They spoke no words ...
by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase