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    Yukio Tsuji

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    THE DITCH

    With one leg in the ditch
    a kidnapper,
    too busy cleaning the ditch
    to kidnap,
    thought:
    Since I don’t kidnap
    nowadays
    I’m no longer a kidnapper
    but a true
    ditch cleaner of Edo.
    I shall clean the ditch
    tomorrow.
    © Translation: 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura

    THE DITCH

    © 1990, Yukio Tsuji
    From: Uguisu-Kodomo to Samurai no 16 Hen
    Publisher: Shoshi Yamada, Tokyo
    Poems
    Poems of Yukio Tsuji
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    THE DITCH

    With one leg in the ditch
    a kidnapper,
    too busy cleaning the ditch
    to kidnap,
    thought:
    Since I don’t kidnap
    nowadays
    I’m no longer a kidnapper
    but a true
    ditch cleaner of Edo.
    I shall clean the ditch
    tomorrow.
    © 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura
    From: Uguisu-Kodomo to Samurai no 16 Hen

    THE DITCH

    With one leg in the ditch
    a kidnapper,
    too busy cleaning the ditch
    to kidnap,
    thought:
    Since I don’t kidnap
    nowadays
    I’m no longer a kidnapper
    but a true
    ditch cleaner of Edo.
    I shall clean the ditch
    tomorrow.
    © 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura
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