Page:Japanese plays and playfellows (1901).djvu/154

126 of Japanese patriotism to cherry-blossom radiant on the hills at sunrise is a good example of the Tanka:

This may be rendered—

But the Hokku or Haikai, which dates from the fifteenth century, imprisons the soul of wit in a cell of even briefer dimensions. It gives the Tanka fourteen syllables start, and covers the course in three strides of five, seven, and five. The pace is so swift that it almost always requires an exegetic field-glass (a microscope and a race of animalcula were perhaps a fitter comparison) to estimate the astonishing triumphs of this wee Pegasus. One of the winners established this remarkable record:

The naked eye perceives in this, indistinctly—