Oh, How cool —
The sound of the bell
That leaves the bell itself.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

Slow passing days
Gathered, gathering, —
Alas, past far-away, distant!

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

Lying ill on journey,
Ah, my dream
Run about the ruin of fields.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

Ah, how sublime. —
The green leaves, the young leaves.
In the light of the sun!

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

To-day, at last to-day,
I grew to wish to raise
The chrysanthemum flowers.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

Like a cobweb hung upon the tree,
A prey to wind and sunlight!
Who will say that we are safe and strong?

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

The maple leaves on the mountain top would
wait for a king's train to pass once more,
Why will my life wait for my own song?

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

The fickle waves of a strand do drench my
sleeves with sprays:
My songs cry only to make the stars sing.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

I row across the expanse of sea,
And the far-away sky, —
I row across the white billows of pain.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

It is too late to hear a nightingale?
Tut, tut, tut, . . . some bird sings,-
That's quite enough, my friend.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

Speak not again, Voice!
The silence washes off sins:
Come not again, Light!

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

This way? or that way?
Where's the very street to Heaven?
What webs of streets!

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

Fallen leaves! Nay, spirits?
Shall I go downward with thee
By a stream of fate?

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

Full of faults, you say.
What beauty in repentance!
Tears, songs . . . thus life flows

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

To become tree-man,
Oh, songs given back by the winds !
What joy of no-man.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

"Ghost of my soul," I shout,
"That cries only to curse me?"
Tip, tip, tip . . . thus the rain falls.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

But the march to life . . .
Break song to sing the new song !
Clouds leap, flowers bloom.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

The silence-leaves fallen from Life,
Older than dream or pain, —
Are they my passing ghost?

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

Song of sea in rain,
Voice of the sky, earth and men!
List, song of my heart.

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones

A breeze forgotten by life,
Steps from thought to thought.
Oh, peace gained by hushed prayer!

From Yone Noguchi's book Japanese Hokkus for Haiku Bones