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Onimenokyo (Offline)
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Arrow Help regarding Calligraphy pictures - 08-08-2010, 09:23 AM

Hello everyone !!

My parents have bought these 2 calligraphy pictures and recently asked me the meaning of them.

Can you please help me and tell me the breakdown of the meaning of each character here, and the global meaning (if one of course).



That would be very kind,

Thank you very much for your help.

Oni.

Last edited by Onimenokyo : 08-08-2010 at 12:14 PM.
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08-08-2010, 10:03 AM

It's probabaly best to not take my word on this, since this is the first time I have bothered to try and read anything like this.

But to me it looks like Matsuo Bashō's 'Old Pond' Haiku:

If you reverse your pictures it will be in the correct order.
(Put the top picture on the bottom and the bottom picture on top)
Or rather... Put the bottom picture to the left of the top picture, to read it from top to bottom, left to right.

Anyway, the whole thing translated goes:
古池や
Old pond

蛙飛込む
Frog leaps in
(Can't tell if it is 飛込む or 飛び込む but it is the same word)

水乃音
Water's sound
(Where 乃 is being used for の)

芭蕉
Bashō
(His name)

古池 - Old pond (古 - old | 池 - Pond)
蛙 - Frog
飛込む - To leap in / To jump in
水 - Water
乃 - This is the Kanji that turned into の - It is a particle that can indicate possession etc
音 - Sound

Last edited by yuriyuri : 08-08-2010 at 10:59 AM.
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08-08-2010, 10:57 AM

Everything yuriyuri stated above is correct.

In defense of the Japanese language, however, I must add that we never write "left-to-right" like in this calligraphy when writing vertically. I've seen this for the first time in my rather long life.

*slightly shocked*
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Onimenokyo (Offline)
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08-08-2010, 12:10 PM

Thanks a lot to both of you for your help Yuriyuri & Sashimister !

Frames will be arranged
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08-09-2010, 07:06 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Onimenokyo View Post
Frames will be arranged
That won't fix the problem I had pointed out because each frame already has the problem within itself.
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Onimenokyo (Offline)
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08-09-2010, 11:13 AM

Certainly, but there is nothing I can possibly do about this, except swapping them to improve it a bit.
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