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A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

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94 <strong>Japanese</strong> Miscellany<br />

enchantment over the face <strong>of</strong> the land. Thus<br />

an old poet describes it —<br />

:<br />

Kurenai no<br />

Kagero hashiru,<br />

Tombo kana<br />

Like a fleeting <strong>of</strong> crimson gossamer-threads, the flashing<br />

<strong>of</strong> the dragon-flies.<br />

Ill<br />

For more than ten centuries the <strong>Japanese</strong> have<br />

been making verses about dragon-flies ; and the<br />

subject remains a favorite one even with the<br />

younger poets <strong>of</strong> to-day. The oldest extant<br />

poem about a dragon-fly is said to have been<br />

composed, fourteen hundred and forty years<br />

ago, by the Emperor Yuriaku. One day while<br />

this Emperor was hunting, say the ancient<br />

records, a gadfly came and bit his arm. There-<br />

with a dragon-fly pounced upon that gadfly,<br />

and devoured it. Then the Emperor com-<br />

manded his ministers to make an ode in praise<br />

<strong>of</strong> that dragon-fly. But as they hesitated how<br />

to begin, he himself composed a poem in praise<br />

<strong>of</strong> the insect, ending with the words, —<br />

!

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