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The sketchy nature of Japanese poetry, especially in this five-line stanza, may be illustrated further by two poems quoted by Prof. The first: Hototogisu Nakitsuru kata wo Nagamureba Tada ari-ake no Tsuki zo nokoreru is literally translated by Professor Chamberlain as follows: "When I gaze towards the place where the cuckoo has been singing, nought remains but the moon in the early dawn."
Only at night, the people say, is its voice heard, and most often upon the nights of great moons; and it chants while hovering high out of sight, wherefore a poet has sung of it thus: Hito koe wa. Tsuki ga naitaka Hototogisu! And another has written: Hototogisu Nakitsuru kata wo Nagamureba, Tada ariake no Tsuki zo nokoreru. The dweller in cities may pass a lifetime without hearing the hototogisu.
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