The life and letters of Lafcadio Hearn . in peoples hearts. For thisreason there is more value in the English ballad ofChilde Waters or of **Tamlane, than in thewhole of the verse of Pope. Of course, I know there are some beautiful thingsin Japanese classical poetry — I have translationsfrom the Manyoshu and Kokinshu which are beau-tiful enough to live forever in any language. Butthese are beautiful because they do not depend onword-values, but upon sentiment and feeling. I fear you will think all this very foolish andbarbarous; but perhaps it will help you to under-stand what I want. Vulgar p
The life and letters of Lafcadio Hearn . in peoples hearts. For thisreason there is more value in the English ballad ofChilde Waters or of **Tamlane, than in thewhole of the verse of Pope. Of course, I know there are some beautiful thingsin Japanese classical poetry — I have translationsfrom the Manyoshu and Kokinshu which are beau-tiful enough to live forever in any language. Butthese are beautiful because they do not depend onword-values, but upon sentiment and feeling. I fear you will think all this very foolish andbarbarous; but perhaps it will help you to under-stand what I want. Vulgar poetry is supremelyvaluable, in my humble opinion. Please this month collect for me, if you can, somepoems on the Sound of the Sea and the Sound ofthe Wind. If there are not many poems on thesesubjects, then you might add poems on the Sea andthe Wind in any other connection. What I want toget is the feeling that the sound and the mystery ofWind and Sea have inspired in Japanese Song. With best wishes ever, faithfully yours, Y. O O H CO oc I !5 v PUBLi. Li-KAKY 1 n; R TO MASANOBU OTANI 345 TO MASANOBU 5tANI Tokyo, June, 1898. My dear Otani, — I am pleased to hear thatthe incident was imaginary, — because this givesme a higher idea of your sense of art. True Hteraryart consists very largely in skilful combination ofreal or possible facts in an imaginary artistic never can be raw truth, any morethan a photograph can be compared with a is a little sentence from one of the greatest ofmodern French writers: — * Vart na pas la verite pour objet. II faut deman-der la verite aux Sciences, parce quelle est leurobjet; — il ne faut pas la demander a la litterature,qui rCa et ne peut avoir dobjet que le beau. (An-atole France.) Of course this must not be taken too literally; butit is substantially the most important of truths for awriter to keep in mind. I would suggest this addi-tion: Remember that nothing can be beautifu
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