Silent Words

Blue Night Road:by Tanaka Fuyuji

The sky full of stars,
the blue night road
seeming to lead to them,
the distant village
bathed in some blue-green wine....
..........
The Stars, drowsy,
pregnant with moisture, falling
in such numbers that they seem
to haunt the road to the white barns of the village.
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Stone: by Kusano Shimpei

Wax-tree, five needled pine,
Grow from a fissure.

Sodden after rain,
moss flowers reflected in granite skin.

At the deep, silent
base of coming and going

Ants and mushrooms,
temple of hill and river spirits.
Clouds drawn up to the blue skies.

Hemmed round by dripping grasses,
bluntly the stone glimmers.
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Hammock: by Horiguchi Daigaku

Hammock spread by a spider
And in it a butterfly rocks.

Shrouded in its golden halo
It dies....
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On the snow
Alighting gently,
the nightingale.

Bright moonlight:
The wounds in the deep snow
Will not be hidden.

Nothing there but
The Whorl of a fern:
This floating world.

Pillow hard as a stone!
Am I a cicada
That I scream so loud? -by Kawabata Bosha
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Stepping on a tendril,
A whole hill of dew
Begins to move

Warm and snug,
Ageing in his sleep
The paddy Snail -by Hara Sekitei
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Utter genius of Japanese poetry transport one to deep, secret, silent spaces inside one's being.
These I read in " The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse"