Beyond Land and Time

Ghostly

(Dānobiyo)

Translated by Faizul Latif Chowdhury

Once in a starry night sprawling on the cloud’s edge

It occurred: am I a soul—or merely a ghostly spirit?

Under the moonlight of a desolate sea I discern

White bones of the wind drift like silvery sands;

On a second look over the meadows I spot

A ghost standing out there

This world as if its cave to muck around.

Then I, raising face from a star to a farther star,

Become quiet, realizing my soul’s puny wisdom—

And grieve over the inseparable ghostliness

of the moon and the wood

Like foxes who, chasing rabbits

on a moonlit Autumnal night,

Suddenly chill to the bone, caught in humanly remorse.