Page:Insect Literature by Lafcadio Hearn.djvu/352

Rh Ware to waga

Kara ya tomurō—

Semi no koe.—Yayū.

This cast-off skin, or simulacrum,—clinging to bole or branch as in life, and seeming still to stare with great glazed eyes,—has suggested many things both to profane and to religious poets. In love-songs it is often likened to a body consumed by passionate longing. In Buddhist poetry it becomes a symbol of earthly pomp,—the hollow show of human greatness:—

Yo no naka yo

Kaeru no hadaka

Semi no kinu!

But sometimes the poet compares the winged and shrilling semi to a human ghost, and the broken shell to the body left behind:— 註