Tuesday, 2 September 2008

Cricket


I could not hear cicadas' singing this week. Instead crickets start singing. While cicada makes sound by shaking stomach, cricket bears sound by scrubbing wings. It is still hot, but I feel from sky that autumn has come. It is said that hotness or coldness continues until equinox day.
A man of Heian era composed a tanka in Kokinwakashu, " Akiwa kinu Ima yamagakino Kirigirisu Yonayona nakam Kazeno samusani ( Autumn has come. Crickets in garden start crying every night singing coldness of the wind ) ".
Sei Shonagon wrote in the pillow book chapter 40 "Insects" that bag warms are so sorrow as they cry "chichiyo chichiyo ( daddy, daddy) " hearing wind sound in August. Did she image that they were calling their parents name ? Japanese think insects are close fellows which let us realize seasons.

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