Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/254

192 arranged in such an order as to form a stanza of poetry as follows:—

Which means, being interpreted by Professor B. H. Chamberlain:—

"Though gay in hue, [the blossoms] flutter down, Alas! Who then, in this world of ours, may continue forever? Crossing to-day the uttermost limits of phenomenal existence, I shall see no more fleeting dreams, neither be any longer intoxicated." In other words, "all is transitory in this fleeting world. Let us escape from its illusions and vanities."

Another arrangement, based on the five vowels and their combination with certain consonants, gives fifty sounds, of which, however, two or three are really duplicates. This table of fifty sounds (gojū-on) is as follows:—