Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/263

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
199

following is a specimen of such an uta, or tanka, from the famous "Hundred Poems":—

Kokoro-ate ni
  Orobaya oran
Hatsu-shimo no
  Oki-madowaseru
Shiragiku no hana.

"If it were my wish
  White chrysanthemum to cull:—
Puzzled by the frost
  Of the early autumn time,
I perchance might pluck the flower."[1]

There is also an abbreviated form called hokku, which contains only the 17 syllables of the first 3 lines of the tanka. The following is an example:—

Kare-eda ni
U no tomari keri
Aki no kure.

"On an autumn evening a crow perches on a withered branch."


The quaintness and simplicity of Japanese thought and expression appear very clearly in their poetry. It has been truly said that a Japanese poem is a picture or even only the outline of a picture to be filled in by the imagination. It may be merely an exclamation, without any logical assertion, like the following, written a thousand years ago:—

Shira-kumo ni
Hane uchi-kawashi
Tobu kari no
Kazu sae miyuru
Aki no yo no tsuki.

"The moon on an autumn night, making visible the very number of wild geese flying past with wings intercrossed in white clouds."[2]
  1. ↑ Translation by Prof. Clay MacCauley, Transactions Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxvii.
  2. ↑ From Chamberlain's "Things Japanese."
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.