Kireji Examples

A kireji marks the cut: the point where the poem pivots from one image to another. Read any haiku and find where it turns; that turn is the cut, and whatever marks it is the kireji. Without a cut, three lines are just a sentence chopped up. With one, they become a haiku. Our guide to juxtaposition in haiku shows what the cut makes possible.

• ya: the strongest cut, like a colon or an exclamation. "Old pond ya" sets the pond apart from everything after it.
• kana: wonder or emphasis at a poem's end, like an exclamation heard from far away.
• keri: a past-tense cut with a sigh in it: "it has happened, and it is over."
• ramu / ran: softer cuts, closer to a comma or a trailing thought.

English cannot import these words, so it imports their jobs. That is what the next section is about.

• The em dash: the workhorse. "old pond: a frog jumps in" hmm, better as "morning frost: on the parked bicycles." A dash after line one or two is the closest English equivalent of ya.
• The colon: explanatory cut. "harvest moon: the scarecrow's shadow." The second part glosses the first.
• The ellipsis: trailing cut. "the last train... snow on the platform." The thought continues past the poem.
• The line break itself: the subtlest cutter. No mark at all, just the gap between lines doing the work. Many modern haiku use only this.
• The exclamation: use sparingly. It shouts where kana would wonder.

Examples 1-6 use classical poems in plain English renderings (originals centuries old, public domain). Examples 7-12 are original, written to show each cutter at work.

1. Basho's ya: the old pond

The cut: after "pond" (the ya in the original). Stillness, then the whole poem happens. See the full reading on our Basho haiku page.

2. Basho's keri: the crow

The cut: keri in "tomarikeri" gives the settling a finished, sighed quality: it has happened, and now it is evening.

3. The colon as explainer

The cut: the colon promises that line two explains line one. The moon is the cause; the long shadow is the effect.

4. The dash as divider

The cut: the dash holds frost and bicycles apart for a beat, the way ya would, before the warm bell surprises.

5. The ellipsis as trailer

The cut: the ellipsis lets the train leave the poem while the snow stays. Departure and stillness in one mark.

6. The bare line break

The cut: no mark at all. The break between lines two and three does the work: image, then the human moment it was all leading to.

7. Kana-like wonder (original)

The cut: the exclamation opens with wonder (kana's job), then the poem narrows to one bird. Wide to narrow in three lines.

8. Double cut (original)

The cut: the colon cuts after line one; the comma cuts again mid-poem. Two small pivots keep the tiny drama moving.

9. End cut (original)

The cut: the colon sits late, after line two, so the final image lands as a revelation rather than a setting.

10. Question as cutter (original)

The cut: the question mark does the cutting: inquiry on one side, the wind's non-answer on the other.

11. The cut as silence (original)

The cut: an actual stanza gap, the boldest English kireji. Sound dies out, and what remains is the reader, listening.

12. Issa-style soft cut (original)

The cut: the comma is barely a cut at all, which suits Issa's warmth: observer and bird are hardly separated. From our Issa haiku notes.

Take any three haiku, yours or the masters', and mark the cut in each with a pencil slash. Then try moving it: what happens if the cut comes after line two instead of line one? The poem's balance shifts completely, which proves the kireji is structural, not decorative. Check your own poems' cuts with our haiku checker, which flags juxtaposition as well as syllables.