Poem

Tian Yuan

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Memory

Human memory is like water
murmuring in a culvert.
It goes on flowing until death
with no sense of tiredness.

Historic memory, like the sea,
never vanishes.
Even if earth should crumble
it would flow to another star.

God’s memory
remains forever silent,
like the speechless sky
even if truth is violated.

The memory of the war is a graveyard
to be swallowed up by quicksand.
Even if missile fragments were to rust and disintegrate
sorrow would remain.

Trees cannot remember their verdure.
Though they try to hide everything in their growth rings
they are subject to the saw.

© Translation: 2010, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura

MEMORY

© 2009, Tian Yuan
From: Ishi no kioku (The Memory of Stone)
Publisher: Shichosha, Tokyo

Tian Yuan

Tian Yuan

Born in 1965 in Henan Province, China, Tian Yuan first came to Japan as a government-financed student early in the 1990s. In 2003 he received a Doctorate in Literature for his study of the poetry of Shuntarô Tanikawa. He now teaches in Tôhoku University in Japan, and is chiefly engaged in the translation of contemporary Japanese poetry. His books of translation into Chinese so far include Selec...

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Memory

Human memory is like water
murmuring in a culvert.
It goes on flowing until death
with no sense of tiredness.

Historic memory, like the sea,
never vanishes.
Even if earth should crumble
it would flow to another star.

God’s memory
remains forever silent,
like the speechless sky
even if truth is violated.

The memory of the war is a graveyard
to be swallowed up by quicksand.
Even if missile fragments were to rust and disintegrate
sorrow would remain.

Trees cannot remember their verdure.
Though they try to hide everything in their growth rings
they are subject to the saw.

© 2010, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura
From: Ishi no kioku (The Memory of Stone)

Memory

Human memory is like water
murmuring in a culvert.
It goes on flowing until death
with no sense of tiredness.

Historic memory, like the sea,
never vanishes.
Even if earth should crumble
it would flow to another star.

God’s memory
remains forever silent,
like the speechless sky
even if truth is violated.

The memory of the war is a graveyard
to be swallowed up by quicksand.
Even if missile fragments were to rust and disintegrate
sorrow would remain.

Trees cannot remember their verdure.
Though they try to hide everything in their growth rings
they are subject to the saw.

© 2010, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura

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