[ファブリス]

I scanned this from the cover of one of the booklets I receive at calligraphy. I think it's written by Kampo (観峰) Harada :



In RTK we learn the kaisho writing, which is "printed style writing", but not the other styles which are more difficult to read.

I'm not sure what the style above is called, but I thought it could be interesting to try to recognise all the characters, and then perhaps have a go at translating it.

If you like it, I can scan more of these, even inside the booklets, so we can translate and also learn from the calligraphy instructions.

OK, this is everything I can read:

そなたの書くabcは
今のdeのすべてである。
美しいabcを
書きたかったら
磨かねばならぬ

guesses for abc: looking at the second time it appears, I'm pretty sure that the b is う. a looks like a little bit like み but c has me completely puzzled.

I'm pretty sure d and e are kanji and e looks a lot like 今. I thought maybe d was 向 or 周 but I can't think of what word it could be.

I understand everything I've managed to read but I haven't quite figured out the last line. I'm pretty sure the meaning of the last line is identical to 磨かなければならない. I'm sure that Japanese people will recognise the abcde immediately and I'm sure that someone else on the forum will be able to recognise them too. Once we identify them, we can translate it.

Do you want to translate the stuff underneath too?

I just had another think. Maybe the abc isn't three characters, it's only two. The second character might be 字 and maybe the first one is 文 making 文字. I thought of this from thinking about the meaning rather than looking at it. It would make sense but 文 looks very different from what's written.

[ファブリス]

Quote:It would make sense but 文 looks very different from what's written.

That's my guess too. The "mo" character looks simplified but logical if you follow the stroke order. I've seen "top hat" drawn like that in many characters, in one stroke.

As for "de" I think it's a fairly common compound, which helped me guess the "e" in your transcription. Hint: the center of the "d" is several horizontal strokes, which are drawn quickly so it goes like in "Z". It's a bit similar to drawing the bottom 4 strokes of fish, in one stroke, in gyousho style.

You forgot one kanji, in the 5th line.

ps: the drawing of the top of "mo" and "ji" are similar.
pps: I think "de" is the compound "by oneself", or in RTK terms "oneself part", I could not recognise "part" otherwise.

I missed out the entire 5th line, not just one kanji. Whoops.

So do you already understand all of it? I got what you meant though, it must be 自分. Can't believe I didn't recognise it, this is good practice.

So just about got it all, just need to work out the fifth line (or I suppose it's a column). Could it be

内なる自分を

? If so, the entire thing reads:

そなたの書く文字は
今の自分のすべてである。
美しい文字を
書きたかったら、
内なる自分を
磨かねばならぬ。

not sure about the 内なる part of the fifth line but apart from that it all works out. So have you already got it all figured out Fabrice? Shall we translate it into English?

[ファブリス]

Quote:So have you already got it all figured out Fabrice?

No,no,no! Just vaguely.. My grammar is far too basic atm. >_<

It's mostly for the exercice of getting accustomed to the "flowing" style, but if you can help translate it that would be great!

I went to this restaurant in 銀座 a couple of years back:

http://www.torigin-ginza.co.jp/menu.html

At the time the only thing I could read on the menu was asparagus and
bacon, and that was out of season

Fortunately they had an english menu...

[ファブリス]

nmkohi Looks nice! Too bad the gifs are low quality, I can just make out a "birs soup" somewhere in there but most of it is difficult to read at this resolution (good excuse, [kana]ne[/kana]!)

wrightak I think the last kana is [kana]ne[/kana].

Quote:Shall we translate it into English?

Let's try! Could be difficult.. it seems a little like a poem, rather than plain writing. The kaisho part might be easier?

I'll try and explain what I think it all means rather than translate.

そなたの書く文字は
今の自分のすべてである。

Looking up そなた, it turns out that it's an archaic version of あなた, which I was unaware of. The amount of ways that you can express the concept of 'I' or 'you' in Japanese belies belief. The irony is that you hardly ever use any of them when speaking. So そなたの書く文字 means 'the characters which you write'. すべて is everything, である is the formal version of です so I guess this bit means something like 'The characters which you write are all of what you are now'. Pretty arty farty.

美しい文字を
書きたかったら、

書きたい means 'want to write' and 書きたかったら means 'if you want to write' so 'If you want to write beautiful characters'

内なる自分を
磨かねばならぬ。

Here's where I get stuck. I'm not sure about the 内なる bit, maybe I made a mistake. If you forget about it for the time being then ならぬ is a formal version of ならない which leads me to guess that the 磨かねばならぬ is the same as 磨かなければならない. The only questionable part being that なければ has been changed to ねば. I haven't seen this before but I reckon this is probably what's going on. So forgetting about the 内なる part, it all means 'you must "polish" yourself' or perhaps, 'improve' or 'refine' your abilities. Putting it all together and speculating on the 内なる part,

"The characters you write are
everything that you are now.
If you want to write beautiful characters,
you must refine your inner-self."

ファブリス Wrote:I scanned this from the cover of one of the booklets I receive at calligraphy.

Excuse me if this is a bit off-topic, but where did you follow those calligraphy lessons? I'm also planning to take some lessons, but I can't find any place here in Antwerp where they teach it so I'm forced to go to Brussels and from your profile I can see you live in Brussels, so I'm really interested in knowing where you're taking those lessons Is it by any coincidence the Centre d'education de calligraphie Japonaise?

[ファブリス]

Yes, here's a page about it
http://www.kampo.co.jp/english/ny-and-br-E/br.html
Except the prices in old Belgian currency, the rest of the information seems correct including the main phone number.

There is also
http://www.calligraphie-du-japon.be/

Another option is to look for chinese calligraphy.

I didn't know the second one, but I suppose that French is the language used at both places? That would be a major drawback, because my French is not really perfect On the otherhand, I did already find a place in Brussels where they teach Chinese calligraphy in Dutch. I would prefer Japanese calligraphy, but I suppose there's not much of a difference between both styles of calligraphy?