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Yone Noguchi (1875-1947) http://tinyurl.com/Noguchi

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The Falls

From The Story of Yone Noguchi Told by Himself, 1915.

Reader: Jessica Teeter

The overwhelming grandeur of the Yosemite Valley has inspired many writers to capture their emotions in lavish, flowing prose. But what if you represent an artistic tradition that values economy of expression?

Yone Noguchi came to California from his native Japan in 1893, determined to become an English language poet. Once here, he was helped by writers like Charles Warren Stoddard and Joaquin Miller, but even so, his work characteristically retained elements of his native traditions, as in this haunting, understated description of Yosemite Falls:

What a thrill of fear, which was not the thing of our world, I felt in the Yosemite Valley as you can see in the first lines of my song of night:

Hark! The prophecy-inciting windquake of the unfathomable concave of darkest Hell!

O, the God-scorning demon's shout against the truth-locked gate of mighty Heaven!

What a sight of the falls reflected to the low-hanging moon! The tall trees looked no other but the ghosts or spirits who gathered and talked something wonderful and evil; and what a sound of water, besides that of the fall, which dashed down the river! I felt cold and suddenly hungry when I became conscious of my sad being amid an almost frightening demonstration of Nature, particularly in the night.

Though Yone Noguchi eventually returned to Japan, he continued to publish English language verse, and he corresponded with Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats about Japanese literary values.