Seventeen Syllables

Many aspects of the haiku function as a motif throughout the story. For instance, numbers that are associated with the rules of haiku recur in meaningful character details. The number three evokes the three-line structure of the poem but also Ume Hanazono’s life span, which was “very brief—perhaps three months at most” (9). One of the Hayano daughters boasts about purchasing a new coat for only 17 dollars, invoking the story’s title and the number of syllables in haiku. Most notably, Tome’s stillborn son “would be seventeen now” (18). As Tome explains to Rosie in the first scene, “she must pack all her meaning into seventeen syllables only” (8), and this challenge maps onto the 17 years of Tome’s grief, transforming her life into one long poem. Each instance of a three or 17 in the story, then, emphasizes both the briefness of certain feelings and the challenge of expressing oneself when one’s language is restricted—whether due to poetic form, the expectations of a wife to be silent, or because Tome’s daughter lacks the Japanese fluency needed to understand the full message Tome wants to deliver to her.