Hizakari wa
Nietatsu semi no
Hayashi kana!
In the hour of heaviest heat, how simmers the forest with semi!
Niete iru
Mizu bakari nari--
Semi no koe.
--TAIMU.
Simmers all the air with sibilation of semi,
Ceaseless, wearying sense,--a sound of perpetual boiling.
Other poets complain especially of the multitude of the noise-makers and
the ubiquity of the noise:--
Aritake no
Ki ni hibiki-keri
Semi no koe.
How many soever the trees, in each rings the voice of the semi.
Matsubara wo
Ichi ri wa kitari,
Semi no koe.
--SENGA.
Alone I walked for miles into the wood of pine-trees:
Always the one same semi shrilled its call in my ears.