But in the form hokku—limited to seventeen syllables—the poems on dragon-flies are almost as numerous as are the dragon-flies themselves in the early autumn. For in this measure there are few restraints placed upon the composer, either as to theme or method. Almost the only rule about hokku,—not at all a rigid one,—is that the poem shall be a little word-picture,—that it shall revive the memory of something seen or felt,—that it shall appeal to some experience of sense. The greater number of the poems that I am going to quote certainly fulfil this requirement: the reader will find that they are really pictures,—tiny color-prints in the manner of the Ukiyoe school. Indeed almost any of the following could be delightfully imaged, with a few touches of the brush, by some Japanese master:—
Picture-Poems about Dragon-flies
Ine no ho no
Tombō tomari
Tarenikeri.
An ear of rice has bent because a dragon-fly perched upon it.
註
