Matsubara wo
Ichi ri wa kitari,
Sémi no koë.
—Senga.
Alone I walked for miles into the wood of pine-trees:
Always the one same sémi shrilled its call in my ears.
Occasionally the subject is treated with comic exaggeration:—
Naité iru
Ki yori mo futoshi
Sémi no koë.
The voice of the sémi is bigger [thicker] than the tree on which it sings.
Sugi takashi
Sarédomo sémi no
Amaru koë!
High though the cedar be, the voice of the sémi is incomparably higher!
Koë nagaki
Sémi wa mijikaki
Inochi kana!
How long, alas! the voice and how short the life of the sémi!
Some poets celebrate the negative form of pleasure following upon the cessation of the sound:—