Besides poems about the chanting of particular insects, there are
countless Japanese poems, ancient and modern, upon the voices of
night-insects in general,--chiefly in relation to the autumn season. Out
of a multitude I have selected and translated a few of the more famous
only, as typical of the sentiment or fancy of hundreds. Although some
of my renderings are far from literal as to language, I believe that
they express with tolerable faithfulness the thought and feeling of the
originals:--
Not for my sake alone, I know, is the autumn’s coming;--
Yet, hearing the insects sing, at once my heart grows sad.