Fifteen Poets of Modern Japan/Akiko Yanagiwara
Akiko Yanagiwara
1
For love of the moonThe sea ebbs and flows.How long their love endures!
2
When the rain falls,You, toad,Go dragging yourself slowly about.You are one of the riddles of the universe.
3
For the sake of this dull lifeAll day long have I spoken liesAnd listened to lies.
4
To the laws and conventions of manI offer no word—Only tears.
5
For a moment only did I dreamAs I lay napping.Have a hundred years passed by?
6
What is jealousy?What is love?A shadow that comesAnd goes.
7
I am not going.I am not returning.I am not staying.Am I alive or dead?
8
I am here.Where is God?It is night,And the lonely stars are twinkling.
9
I curse the sadness of my bottomless heartThat made the song called “I.”
10
The incense smoke,Rising and wavering,Thins and dissolves.My heart goes with it.