Tag Archive | hyakushu

小鳥の歌 28

Jan8

Time in suspension
Waiting for the next moment
Excited, afraid
Oh, my breath is stripped away
In exquisite agony

Note: Link is breath of air to breath stripped away. I wrote this while watching the last few minutes of the 2016 World Series with the Chicago Cubs versus the Cleveland Indians. The Cubs won by 1 point during an extra inning AFTER a rain delay, breaking an 108 year record of losses. I’m not a huge Cubs fan or anything, but I did live in the Chicago area for a couple of years when I was little, and have visited there often, so I’m very happy for them.

小鳥の歌 27

Jan8

Kinsukuroi
Knit up with glistening gold
My heart is mended
Yet still so very fragile
Broken with a breath of air

Link: Falling apart at the seams to Knit up with glistening gold. Kinsukuroi 金繕い (also known as kintsugi 金継ぎ) is a process where broken ceramics are mended by using gold as a binder. There is no attempt to hide the fact that the ceramic piece was broken, but instead, the imperfection is recognized and celebrated.

小鳥の歌　23-26

Jan8

Eternity waits
It is unkindly patient
And will not be rushed
But we who are mortal strain
To constrain every minute

A trap, a rope to
Tie me with, I will not lose
My freedom this way
Entice me with your smiles
Enfold me in your warm arms

Arm for a pillow
I gaze at your sleeping face
Noble in repose
Alas, I cannot stay long
The night passes in patches

Passing in patches
The night is stitched up roughly
Like a well-worn quilt
Falling apart at the seams
Barely holding together

Links: 23 “each breath an eternity” to “eternity waits”
24 “Constrain” to “a trap, a rope to tie me with”
25 “enfold me in your warm arms” to “arm for a pillow”
26 “Passing in patches” to “stitched up roughly”

小鳥の歌 22

Jan8

Every night and all
Some cry, some pray, some seek peace
Within another’s arms
Autumn’s widening shadows
Each breath an eternity

Link: Okay, this one is a little obscure: The living and the dead to “every night and all”, which is part of the chorus of the Lyke Wake Dirge.

My favorite version of this ancient song is rather modern, by Andrew Bird and Matt Berniger of The National:

小鳥の歌 21

Jan8

A storm-fallen tree
Leaves in disarray my heart
Broken asunder
A torrential deluge falls
Upon the living and the dead

Notes: Link Hurricane to fallen tree. The last line is a twist on the last line of “The Dead” by James Joyce: “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” That sentence has haunted me since I first read the story in high school.

Also note rare English kakekotoba (pivot word) in the 2nd line (my heart) that actually works like it might in Japanese, changing the meaning depending on whether you attach it to the words before or after.

Yes, I’m really upset about my dead tree.

小鳥の歌 20

Jan8

Lonely, I wait here
Where none but God can find me
He isn’t looking
Like a garage-sale puzzle
Not all the pieces are there

2nd poem

Oh, I cannot breathe
The filthy air clouding my lungs
In these godless times
A hurricane of chaos
Envelops the innocent

Link: poem 1 godless month to where none but God can find me. Poem 2 godless month to these godless times.

I will probably use the 2nd poem in the final sequence, as the 1st one is too modern in feel. But I liked it enough to post it.

小鳥の歌 19

Jan8

Where are the colors?
How late the summer lingers!
The leaves still verdant
A season out of season
A month when there are no gods

This one is rather hard to see: a mother, sighing, I bend down to start cleaning — to Where are the colors? It actually started as where are the CHILDREN, but the poem then turned into a comment about the leaves remaining green this far into October Kannazuki (神無月) short for kaminashizuki “the month when there are no gods”, commonly called the “godless month” in the Japanese calendar. The eight million or so native gods of Japan all travel to Izumo taisha (the Grand Izumo Shrine) in October, leaving the rest of the country “godless”.