poems

By the rainy window
I spoke with Saikou about parting

In this detached room with a low lamp,stay awhile for fun;
until the new mud on the way back dries, you better wait.
On the other bank the peak and range have fewer clouds;
in the next house strings and songs have peaked.
This spring being intercalary, you,my guest,still stay,
but night-long rain has pitilessly left few flowers intact.
Mino for which you are about to leave which isn't far away,
but having grown old I expect it to be hard to meet often.

-Rai san'you

Chieko Riding the Wind

Chieko, now mad, will not speak
and only with blue magpies and plovers exchanges signs.
Along the hill-range of windbreak
pine pollen flows everywhere yellow and
in the wind of clear May,Kujuukuri Beach grows hazy.

Chieko's robe appears and dissapears among the pines,
on the white sands there are truffles growing.
Gathering them, I
slowly follow after Chieko.
The blue magpies and plovers are now her friends.
To chieko who has already given up being human
this terrifyingly beautiful morning sky is the finest place to walk.
Chieko flies.

-Takamura Koutarou