The Great Loochoo: A Study of Okinawan Village Life . By Clarence J. Glacken. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1955. xvi, 324. $4.50.

A more literal version, In the dead willow cicadas din. In the western sky one red star begins to shine, suggests a political context! Akaboshi in poetry, however, normally means Venus as the morning star (being interpreted as ake no hoshi rather than akaki hoshi, although the character "red" is sometimes used). Kareyanagi is not attested before 1825. Semishigure ("cicada-shower," in reference to their noisy song) is a figure introduced by the haiku poets. Nishizora, too, strikes a modern note. Both poems mix seasons, making them additionally suspect. Last and least, yomibito shirazu as a designation of anonymous authorship is appropriate only to poems of the Heian period. Here is a puzzle for explicators!