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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: criticism has declared that to put forward any serious claim on behalf of
seventeen-syllable poems "would be absurd." But what, then, of Crashaw's
famous line upon the miracle at the marriage feast in Cana?--
Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit. [1]
Only fourteen syllables -- and immortality. Now with seventeen Japanese
syllables things quite as wonderful -- indeed, much more wonderful -- have
been done, not once or twice, but probably a thousand times... However,
there is nothing wonderful in the following hokku, which have been selected
for more than literary reasons:--
Nugi-kakuru [2]
Haori sugata no
Kwaidan |
