Page:Insect Literature by Lafcadio Hearn.djvu/54

Rh poems "would be absurd." But what, then, of Crashaw's famous line upon the miracle at the marriage feast in Cana ?—

Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit.

Only fourteen syllables—and immortality. Now with seventeen Japanese syllables things quite as wonderful—indeed; much more wonderful—have been done, not once or twice, but probably a thousand times...... However, there is nothing wonderful in the following hokku, which have been selected for more than literary reasons:—

Nugi-kakuru Haori sugata no       Kochō kana!

[Like a haori being taken off—that is the shape of a butterfly!]

Torisashi no Sao no jama suru, Kochō kana!

[Ah, the butterfly keeps getting in the way of the bird-catcher's pole!] 註