Underneath the void-colored shade of
the trees, my 'self' passed as a dowdy
cloud into Somewhere.
I see my soul floating upon the face of
the deep, nay the faceless face of the deepless deep－
Ah, the Seas of Loneliness!
The mute-waving, silence-waters, ever shoreless,
bottomless, heavenless, colorless, have no shadow
of my passing soul.
Alas, I, without wisdom, without foolishness, without goodness,
without badness,－am like god, a negative god, at least!
Is that a quail? One voice out of the back-hill
jumped into the ocean of loneliness.
Alas, what sound resounds; what color returns;
the bottom, the heaven, too, reappears!
There is no place of muteness! Yea, my paradise
is lost in this moment!
I want not pleasure, sadness, love, hatred, success,
unsuccess, beauty, ugliness－only the mighty
Nothing in No More.
Seen and Unseen
Yone Noguchi; edited by Shunsuke Kamei. Collected English works of Yone Noguchi: poems, novels and literary essays. v.5. Tokyo : Edition Synapse, 2007.