of Japanese patriotism to cherry-blossom radiant on the hills at sunrise is a good example of the Tanka:
"Shikishima no
Yamato-gokoro wo
Hito towaba,
Asahi ni niou
Yama zakura bana."
This may be rendered—
Heart of our Island,
Heart of Yamato,
If one should ask you
What it may be;
Fragrance is wafted
Through morning sunlight
Over the mountain,
Cherry-trees bloom.
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:
"Asagao ni
Tsurube torarete,
Morai mizu."
The naked eye perceives in this, indistinctly—
By convolvulus
Well bucket taken:
Gift-water.
