Hokku 27
The silence-leaves fallen from Life, Older than dream or pain, — Are they my passing ghost?
Yone Noguchi
The silence-leaves fallen from Life, Older than dream or pain, — Are they my passing ghost?
Yone Noguchi’s three-line poem turns a familiar autumn scene into a quiet meditation on impermanence. The speaker sees fallen leaves, but describes them as “silence-leaves fallen from Life,” as though silence itself has dropped from the world and now rests on the ground.
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