Poem

Shuntaro Tanikawa

Side by side

DIRT

Memories are
deep
evening darkness

To an aging mind
even regret is
a subtle source of light

Seeds
from many flowers
that no longer bloom

I still keep on sowing them
to make the dirt
sing

© Translation: 2011, Takako U. Lento
From: The Art of Being Alone: Poems 1952-2009
Publisher: Cornell University, Ithica, New York, 2011

泥

記憶は
濃い
夕闇

悔いも
老いには
かすかな光

もう咲かない
花々の
種子

今も蒔き続け
泥を
歌わせる

Shuntaro Tanikawa

(Japan, 1931)

Shuntaro Tanikawa has been a phenomenon in Japan since the publication of his first collection, Alone in Two Billion Light Years, in 1952. In the book’s prefatory poem, Tanikawa’s mentor, Tatsuji Miyoshi, introduced him as a young man who “has come from a distant land, unexpected [ . . . ] bearing the weight of being alone”. Indeed, he seemed to be totally unencumbered by Japan’s post-World War...

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Poems of Shuntaro Tanikawa

DIRT

Memories are
deep
evening darkness

To an aging mind
even regret is
a subtle source of light

Seeds
from many flowers
that no longer bloom

I still keep on sowing them
to make the dirt
sing

© 2011, Takako U. Lento
From: The Art of Being Alone: Poems 1952-2009
Publisher: 2011, Cornell University, Ithica, New York

DIRT

Memories are
deep
evening darkness

To an aging mind
even regret is
a subtle source of light

Seeds
from many flowers
that no longer bloom

I still keep on sowing them
to make the dirt
sing

© 2011, Takako U. Lento
From: The Art of Being Alone: Poems 1952-2009
Publisher: 2011, Cornell University, Ithica, New York