JAPANESE poems on semi are usually very brief; and my collection chiefly
consists of _hokku_,--compositions of seventeen syllables. Most of these
_hokku_ relate to the sound made by the semi,--or, rather, to the
sensation which the sound produced within the poet's mind. The names
attached to the following examples are nearly all names of old-time
poets,--not the real names, of course, but the _go_, or literary names
by which artists and men of letters are usually known.
* * * * *
Yokoi Yayu, a Japanese poet of the eighteenth century, celebrated as a
composer of _hokku_, has left us this naive record of the feelings with
which he heard the chirruping of cicadae in summer and in autumn:--
"In the sultry period, feeling oppressed by the greatness of the
heat, I made this verse:--
"Semi atsushi
Matsu kirabaya to
Omou-made.
[The chirruping of the semi aggravates the heat until I wish
to cut down the pine-tree on which it sings.]
"But the days passed quickly; and later, when I heard the crying
of the semi grow fainter and fainter in the time of the autumn
winds, I began to feel compassion for them, and I made this
second verse:--
"Shini-nokore
Hitotsu bakari wa
Aki no semi."
[Now there survives
But a single one
Of the semi of autumn!]
Lovers of Pierre Loti (the world's greatest prose-writer) may remember
in _Madame Chrysantheme_ a delightful passage about a Japanese
house,--describing the old dry woodwork as impregnated with sonority by
the shrilling crickets of a hundred summers.[30] There is a Japanese
poem containing a fancy not altogether dissimilar:--
Matsu no ki ni
Shimikomu gotoshi
Semi no koe.
Into the wood of the pine-tree
Seems to soak
The voice of the semi.
[30] Speaking of his own attempt to make a drawing of the
interior, he observes: "Il manque a ce logis dessine son
air frele et sa sonorite de violon sec. Dans les traits de
crayon qui representent les boiseries, il n'y a pas la
precision minutieuse avec laquelle elles sont ouvragees, ni
leur antiquite extreme, ni leur proprete parfaite, _ni les
vibrations de cigales qu' elles semblent avoir emmagasinees
pendant des centaines d'etes dans leurs fibres
dessechees_."
A very large number of Japanese poems about semi describe the noise of
the creatures as an affliction. To fully sympathize with the complaints
of the poets, one must have heard certain varieties of Japanese cicadae
in full midsummer chorus; but even by readers without experience of the
clamor, the following verses will probably be found suggestive:--
Ware hitori
Atsui yo nari,--
Semi no koe!
--BUNSO.
Meseems that only I,--I alone among mortals,--
Ever suffered such heat!--oh, the noise of the semi!
Ushiro kara
Tsukamu yo nari,--
Semi no koe.
--JOFU.
Oh, the noise of the semi!--a pain of invisible seizure,--
Clutched in an enemy's grasp,--caught by the hair from behind!
Yama no Kami no
Mimi no yamai ka?--
Semi no koe!
--TEIKOKU.
What ails the divinity's ears?--how can the God of the Mountain
Suffer such noise to exist?--oh, the tumult of semi!
Soko no nai
Atsusa ya kumo ni
Semi no koe!
--SAREN.
Fathomless deepens the heat: the ceaseless shrilling of semi
Mounts, like a hissing of fire, up to the motionless clouds.
Mizu karete,
Semi wo fudan-no
Taki no koe.
--GEN-U.
Water never a drop: the chorus of semi, incessant,
Mocks the tumultuous hiss,--the rush and foaming of rapids.
Kageroishi
Kumo mata satte,
Semi no koe.
--KITO.
Gone, the shadowing clouds!--again the shrilling of semi
Rises and slowly swells,--ever increasing the heat!
Daita ki wa,
Ha mo ugokasazu,--
Semi no koe!
--KAFU.
Somewhere fast to the bark he clung; but I cannot see him:
He stirs not even a leaf--oh! the noise of that semi!
Tonari kara
Kono ki nikumu ya!
Semi no koe.
--GYUKAKU.
All because of the Semi that sit and shrill on its branches--
Oh! how this tree of mine is hated now by my neighbor!
This reminds one of Yayu. We find another poet compassionating a tree
frequented by semi:--
Kaze wa mina
Semi ni suwarete,
Hito-ki kana!
--CHOSUI.
Alas! poor solitary tree!--pitiful now your lot,--every breath
of air having been sucked up by the semi!