Choku nareba
Itomo kashikoshi
Uguisu no
Yado wa to towaba
Ika ni kotaen.
“Since His Majesty commands, I obey with joy; but when the bush-warbler comes and asks for his home, what answer shall I give?” The Emperor, upon reading this ode, felt sorry that he had deprived her of her favourite tree.
There are also other combinations; but all Japanese verses are composed of pentasyllabic and heptasyllabic lines. What is known as the long ode is a series of the two in alternation, closing with an extra heptasyllable. Another verse is formed of a pair of sets, each containing a pentasyllable and two heptasyllables; and still another comprises four couplets of a heptasyllable and a pentasyllable each. From these combinations has been evolved what is called poetry of the new school, which is an indefinite series of five and seven syllables in alternation. It is now very common; and almost all songs written to the accompaniment of European music are in this form. In the following children’s song which has for the last half dozen years been popular in Tokyo, the English reader will recognise a very old friend:—
Moshi moshi kame yo
kamesan yo
Sekai no uchi ni