Beginning about 300 years ago, a new poetic style called the Haikai or Hokku was devel oped. This form of verse is even shorter than the °short" poems and has come to prevail side by side with the ordinary poetry. While this latter chiefly prevails among the higher classes of people the Haikai finds favor generally among the lower classes, and therefore is some times called the "people's literature." The Haikai possess peculiar merit and forms a distinct branch of Japanese literature. This style also has a remote origin but we must refrain at present from giving a more detailed account.
Following the Ashikaga era, that is, the 14th and 15th centuries, the so-called Renka ("joined poems") prevailed chiefly among the military class. How this style is composed is perhaps worth relating. Several persons form a party, when one composes the first short line of 17 syllables, the next the second line of 14 syllables, the third another of 17 syllables and the fourth 14 syllables, and so on. Hence the name of this peculiar class—perhaps a bet ter in English would be "coalition" poetry. Each line must be connected in meaning with the preceding one in such a manner that the connection should not appear to be direct. This explanation, perhaps, will be incomprehensible to those not versed in the subject, but it is the most important and interesting character of this poetry. The Haikai is derived from the Renka. In it the lines are composed in a simi lar manner and the act of so doing termed Tsukeai, that is, °joining together"; the result is known as Kasen. The most important line of the Kasen is the first (Tateku) and it forms a complete poem in itself. This first line, being the opening one of the whole series, is the Hokku, that is, the commencing verse. In com mon practice, however, as a rule the first line alone was only to be composed. Hence the Japanese poem in its shortest form became known as the Hokku. The best-known poet of this style is Basho, who flourished about 200 years ago. Prior to Basho, the Hokku had shown a comic tendency, but he changed it, and created the Shofutai, or legitimate style. He is probably the foremost among those who really inherited the spirit of the Manyoshu age and the Heian era.
As to the form of Japanese poetry, there is no rhyme nor strict metrical cadency. About the only element in which poetry differs from prose is that in the former five or seven sylla bles form one line— strictly speaking a sen tence, for it is not always written in the form of a separate line as in the Western poems.
This peculiarity is entirely due to the nature of the language, for poetic euphony and sentiment can be acquired without the use of rhyme or metre. The common method of placing to gether these five or seven syllable lines is to place each alternatively commencing with a five syllable line. But it is not necessarily a fixed method because some of the long poems com mence with seven. In some cases, especially in popular songs, two or. three lines of the same syllables are placed together. It differs accord ing to the different periods and the nature of poems and there are lines which are either shorter than five syllables or longer than seven, intermingled with other lines for the sake of variety.
In Japanese composition even poems which are termed °long" are not so lengthy as many Western poems. The ordinary short poems consist of only 31 syllables, 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7. and the Hokku of only 17 syllables, 5, 7 and 5. "Japanese poetry is, in short, confined to lyrics, and what, for want of a better word, may be called epigrams." This is what Mr. Aston says of Japanese poetry and it is not very far from the fact. Under the circumstances, Japanese when translated into another language will invariably fail to convey any poetical thought to the European mind in general. How ever, poetry of any tongue has its peculiar charming power to those who have grown up with the language —a power unknown to out siders. This is most certainly the truth with regard to Japanese poetry. Let us give a few examples: Tsuki ya aranu Baru ye mukashi no Haru naranu Wagami hitotsu we Moto no mi nishite.
The plain literary translation of these lines would be: Is there no moon? Is the spring not the spring? My person alone remaining the original perms? This poem for Japanese possesses an inde scribable charm,— food for sentiment and im agination. The meaning is that while the moon and spring are the same, I alone am not the same old person — told with a pathos which strongly appeals to the Japanese mind not only by its literary meaning, but also by the mode of expression. The piece is the most celebrated work of Narihira, the first writer of the Heian era. Again: Furu ike ye Irawazu tohgcomu Mien no oto.