A Hundred Verses from Old Japan - the Hyaku-nin-isshiu - or Single Verses by a Hundred People
THE Hyaku-nin-isshiu, or 'Single Verses by a Hundred People', had been collected together in A.D. 1235. They are placed in approximate chronological order, and range from about the year AD 670. Perhaps what strikes 1 most in connection with the Hyaku-nin-isshiu is the date when the verses were written most of them were developed just before the time of the Norman Conquest (AD 1066), and one particular can't but be struck with the advanced state of art and culture in Japan at a time when Europe was nevertheless in a very elementary stage of civilization.
The Collection consists just about completely of adore-poems and what the editor calls picture-poems, intended to bring before the mind's eye some properly-known scene in nature and it is marvellous what effect little thumbnail sketches are compressed within thirty-a single syllables. Some show the cherry blossoms which are doomed to fall, the dewdrops scattered by the wind, the mournful cry of the wild deer on the mountains, the dying crimson of the fallen maple leaves, the weird sadness of the cuckoo singing in the moonlight, and the loneliness of the recluse in the mountain wilds when those verses which seem to be of a far more cheerful sort are rather of the nature of the 'Japanese smile', described by Lafcadio Hearn as a mask to hide the genuine feelings.
