Shadowings Part 7

--TAIMU.

Simmers all the air with sibilation of semi, Ceaseless, wearying sense,--a sound of perpetual boiling.

Other poets complain especially of the mult.i.tude of the noise-makers and the ubiquity of the noise:--

Aritake no Ki ni hibiki-keri Semi no koe.

How many soever the trees, in each rings the voice of the semi.

Matsubara wo Ichi ri wa kitari, Semi no koe.

--SENGA.

Alone I walked for miles into the wood of pine-trees: Always the one same semi shrilled its call in my ears.

Occasionally the subject is treated with comic exaggeration:--

Naite iru Ki yori mo futos.h.i.+ Semi no koe.

The voice of the semi is bigger [_thicker_] than the tree on which it sings.

Sugi takas.h.i.+ Saredomo semi no Amaru koe!

High though the cedar be, the voice of the semi is incomparably higher!

Koe nagaki Semi wa mijikaki Inochi kana!

How long, alas! the voice and how short the life of the semi!

Some poets celebrate the negative form of pleasure following upon the cessation of the sound:--

Semi ni dete, Hotaru ni modoru,-- Suzumi kana!

--YAYu.

When the semi cease their noise, and the fireflies come out--oh! how refres.h.i.+ng the hour!

Semi no tatsu, Ato suzus.h.i.+sa yo!

Matsu no koe.

--BAIJAKU.

When the semi cease their storm, oh, how refres.h.i.+ng the stillness!

Gratefully then resounds the musical speech of the pines.

[Here I may mention, by the way, that there is a little j.a.panese song about the _matsu no koe_, in which the onomatope "zazanza" very well represents the deep humming of the wind in the pine-needles:--

Zazanza!

Hama-matsu no oto wa,-- Zazanza, Zazanza!

Zazanza!

The sound of the pines of the sh.o.r.e,-- Zazanza!

Zazanza!]

There are poets, however, who declare that the feeling produced by the noise of semi depends altogether upon the nervous condition of the listener:--

Mori no semi Suzus.h.i.+ki koe ya, Atsuki koe.

--OTSUSHU.

Sometimes sultry the sound; sometimes, again, refres.h.i.+ng: The chant of the forest-semi accords with the hearer's mood.

Suzus.h.i.+sa mo Atsusa mo semi no Tokoro kana!

--FUHAKU.

Sometimes we think it cool,--the resting-place of the semi;--sometimes we think it hot (it is all a matter of fancy).

Suzus.h.i.+ to Omoeba, suzus.h.i.+ Semi no koe.

--GINKo.

If we think it is cool, then the voice of the semi is cool (that is, the fancy changes the feeling).

In view of the many complaints of j.a.panese poets about the noisiness of semi, the reader may be surprised to learn that out of semi-skins there used to be made in both China and j.a.pan--perhaps upon h.o.m.oeopathic principles--a medicine for the cure of ear-ache!

One poem, nevertheless, proves that semi-music has its admirers:--

Omos.h.i.+roi zo ya, Waga-ko no koe wa Takai mori-ki no Semi no koe![32]

Sweet to the ear is the voice of one's own child as the voice of a semi perched on a tall forest tree.

[32] There is another version of this poem:--

Omos.h.i.+roi zo ya, Waga-ko no naku wa Sembu-segaki no Kyo yori mo!

"More sweetly sounds the crying of one's own child than even the chanting of the sutra in the service for the dead." The Buddhist service alluded to is held to be particularly beautiful.

But such admiration is rare. More frequently the semi is represented as crying for its nightly repast of dew:--

Semi wo kike,-- Ichi-nichi naite Yoru no tsuyu.

--KIKAKU.

Hear the semi shrill! So, from earliest dawning, All the summer day he cries for the dew of night.

Yu-tsuyu no Kuchi ni iru made Naku semi ka?

--BAIs.h.i.+TSU.

Will the semi continue to cry till the night-dew fills its mouth?

Occasionally the semi is mentioned in love-songs of which the following is a fair specimen. It belongs to that cla.s.s of ditties commonly sung by geisha. Merely as a conceit, I think it pretty, in spite of the fact.i.tious pathos; but to j.a.panese taste it is decidedly vulgar. The allusion to beating implies jealousy:--

Nus.h.i.+ ni tatakare, Washa matsu no semi Sugaritsuki-tsuki Naku bakari!