Hokku 8
Sudden pain of earth I hear in the fallen leaf. "Life's autumn," I cry.
Yone Noguchi
Sudden pain of earth I hear in the fallen leaf. "Life's autumn," I cry.
A single fallen leaf becomes the voice of the earth’s quiet grief. The speaker hears in it a “sudden pain,” as if the earth’s loss is made audible in that one small falling shape. Autumn here works on two levels: the season itself, and a late, fading stage of a human life.
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