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Yone Noguchi, "A Proposal
to American Poets," Reader 3:3 (Feb. 1904):
248. |
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A Proposal to American Poets
By YONE NOGUCHI
Hokku (seventeen-syllable poem) is like a tiny star, mind you, carrying the
whole sky at its back. It is like a slightly-open door, where you may
steal into the realm of poesy. It is simply a guiding lamp. Its
value depends on how much it suggests. The Hokku poet's chief aim is to
impress the reader with the high atmosphere in which he is living. I always
compare an English poem with a mansion with windows widely open, even the
pictures of its drawing-room being visible from outside. I dare say it
does not tempt me much to see the within.
"A cloud of flowers!
Is the bell from Uyeno
Or Asakusa?"
(Basho.) Yes, cloud of flowers, of
course, in Mukojima, the odorous profusion shutting out
every prospect! Listen to the bell sounding from the
distance! Does it come from the temple of Uyeno or
Asakusa? Doesn't the poem suggest a Spring picture of the
river Sumida?
"On a Withered branch,
Lo! the crows are sitting there,
Oh, this Autumn eve!"
(Basho.) What a suggestion for the
solitariness of a Japanese Autumn evening!
The
crows--what a monotonous "Kah! Kah, Kah!"--are the image of
melancholy for Japanese.
Basho was a master of Hokku, a great suggester. He made long excursions
to the remotest spots frequently, leaving behind him traces
which remain to this day in the shapes of stones with his
inscription. His monuments are said to number more than one
thousand.
Pray, you try Japanese Hokku, my American
poets!
You say far too much, I should say.
Here are some of my own attempts in the seventeen-syllable
verse:
"My girl's lengthy hair
Swung o'er me from Heaven's gate:
Lo, Evening's shadow!"
"Lo, light and shadow
Journey to the home of night:
Thou and I--to
Love!"
"Where the flowers sleep,
Thank God! I shall sleep, to-night.
Oh, come, butterfly! "
"Fallen leaves! Nay, spirits?
Shall I go downward with thee
'Long a stream of Fate?" |
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