The idea of seventeen syllables comes from Hisaye Yamamoto's essay "Seventeen Syllables." In this essay, Mrs. Hayashi writes haikus, which are composed of seventeen syllables (five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables). Seventeen syllables are representative of more than simply the literal number of syllables in every haiku. Seventeen syllables also represent the secrets from Mrs. Hayashi's past. Mrs. Hayashi had a secret lover with whom she had a child, a baby boy. The boy was a premature stillborn, but if he had lived he would have been seventeen years old. This suggests that the seventeen syllables in Mrs. Hayashi's haikus are indicative of her past life and her stillborn son. Her haikus serve to memorialize her past and her son.
Samantha Sears
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