Seventeen Syllables

Short Story: Seventeen Syllables

Author: Hisaye Yamamato

Analysis&Quote:

“See, Rosie, she said, it was a haiku poem, a poem in which she must pack all of her meaning into seventeen syllables only, which were divided into three lines of five,seven, and five syllables.”

I find this line interesting because I feel from the beginning that Yamamoto was already giving the reader insight of that fact that something, good or bad, was going to be revealed in the story later on. I think it’s interesting that the Yamamoto uses haiku’s as the central point of the story because haiku’s are deliberate, precise, and are focused. In order for a haiku to be successful you must pack all of your meaning into a few word choices but simultaneously tell a grand story with it. Your word choice is important but also the words you choose to not say are equally as important. Why did the poet used joyful instead of happy or sad instead of depressed? I think this is important to note because Rosie’s mother or Uma Hanazono appears to try to tell her daughter her story throughout the novel through her writing of haikus.

It seems that her mother was writing haikus in an effort to find the right words to tell her daughter what she wanted to her to know, which was how she came to marry her father. “It was as though her mother had memorized it by heart, reciting it to herself so many times over that its nagging vileness had long since gone. “ But it’s apparent that Rosie wasn’t interested as when she talks about her proficiency in Japanese she  says, “English lay ready on the tongue buy Japanese had to be searched for and examined, and even then put forth tentatively (probably to meet with laughter).” Rosie found Japanese to be exhausting and from the language barrier she wasn’t really able to catch onto what her mother was trying to tell her. This is evident when her mother tells reads her her first haiku and Rosie doesn’t bother to try to understand. “Rosie knew formal Japanese by fits and starts, her mother had even less English, no French. It was much more possible to say yes,yes.” Even at the end when her mother tells her the story of how and why she married her father, and tries to get Rosie to understand her pain by making her promise not to marry Rosie says, “Yes, Yes, I promise,.”Rosie can’t understand because it’s something she hasn’t taken time to try to understand or pay interest in.

I believe from this story Yamamoto is making a point that children should love their mother. She’s stressing that you don’t always know what your mother has faced or done, and although she may not tell you explicitly she is always trying to get your attention to make you listen. From the ending, I believe Yamamoto says here is either hope that the child will listen or will not. The “consoling hand” could have come from either her mother(in which case she listened) or Jesus(in which case she didn’t.) I think the interpretation of who lent the consoling hand allows the reader to decide not only what kind of person Rosie is, but also give thought to how much do children value their mother and specifically, how much do first-generation children value their mother and heritage.