Page:The Spirit of Japanese Poetry (Noguchi).djvu/51

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The lump of clay He beats with a stick,– He, the master of the plum-orchard.”)

There might be many people, I believe, who will wonder where in the world poetry will come in from a piece of clay beaten by a stick. But be patient, my friends. This is quite an excellent Hokku poem; here we have a scene of some old retired master of a plum-orchard now in a stroll (“And day’s at the morn; morning’s at seven,” perhaps as in Robert Browning’s song in Pippa Passes), who beats a lump of clay playfully while walking lazily. And go again to the lines of great Browning:

Do you still call the above Hokku nonsense? Take one more poem by Buson in the following:

Some little amplification would perhaps help in understanding the beauty of the above poem; but if your sensitive ears can differentiate the sounds of a bell in the daytime and during the