Japanese Poem - Tumblr Posts
The Fish’s Desire
by Shuzo Takiguchi
Virginal decorations.
The pain of countless upside-down candles.
The branches and flowers of transparent trees.
The rumble of infinity’s mirror
and the sudden spasm of house windows.
My whole body.
In the fossilized water that brightens day by day
my desire still swims.
I, bastard child of the giant chandelier called the blue sky.
No one calls me the sphinx of love.
In a jasper fable, my dream
glittered all the more blue.
—Translated from the Japanese by Mary Jo Bang and Yuki Tanaka
Fuyugare no
Nobe to waga mi wo
Omoiseba
Moede mo haru wo
Matashimono wo
- Ise
If I consider my body like the fields withered by winter, can I hope, though I am burnt, that spring will come again?
KOKINSHUU (collection of ancient and modern poems)