Thursday, September 18, 2008

Shin Kokinshu VI: 648 Winter


As the late night sandpipers'

Cries draw near

The Narumi Marshes,

The salt tide rises

In the setting moon


Shosamme Sueyoshi (??~??)




小夜千鳥

声こそ近く

鳴海潟

傾く月に

潮や満つらん




正三位季能 (??~??)

Friday, August 8, 2008

[Shin Kokinshu], Autumn Songs, Volume II, 491 『新古今集』秋下・491。

100 Shinkokinshu Selections (East Asian Poetry Translation Series, Volume IV)



The passing shower’s raindrops
Still droop from the needles of the pines,
Mists rise in the lonesome autumn dusk

The Monk Jakuren (Fujiwara no Sadanaga) (1139-1202)

村雨の 
露もまだひぬ 
まきの葉に 
霧たちのぼる 
秋の夕暮れ

寂蓮法師 (藤原定長) (1139-1202)

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Unbent by the Rain 「雨ニモマケズ」






Unbent by the rain;
Unbent by the wind;
Unbent by the snow or summer’s heat;
With robust body;
Unselfish;
Never angry;
Ever gently smiling;
With just four cups of brown rice a day
and some miso and a few vegetables;
Doing each and every thing
Unselfishly, uncalculatingly;
Seeing, listening, understanding well;
Unforgetting;
Living in the shade of a grove of pines in a field
In a tiny thatched roof hut;
Who if there were a sick child to the east,
Would go nurse him well;
If there were an exhausted mother to the west,
Who’d go and carry a bundle of rice stalks for her;
If there were someone near death to the south,
Who’d go and tell her not to fear;
If there were quarrels and disputes to the north,
Who’d go tell them to stop squabbling over trifles;
Who sheds tears in times of drought;
Who walks uneasily when summer’s cold;
Who’s called a nobody by everyone;
Who’s neither praised
Nor of a ‘certain’ place;
This is the sort of person
I
Want to be!

Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933)










雨ニモマケズ
風ニモマケズ
雪ニモ夏ノ暑サニモマケヌ
丈夫ナカラダヲモチ
慾ハナク
決シテ瞋ラズ
イツモシヅカニワラツテヰル
一日ニ玄米四合ト
味噌ト少シノ野菜ヲタベ
アラユルコトヲ
ジブンヲカンジヨウニ入レズニ
ヨクミキキシワカリ
ソシテワスレズ
野原ノ松ノ林ノ陰ノ
小サナ萱ブキノ小屋ニヰテ
東ニ病気ノコドモアレバ
行ツテ看病シテヤリ
西ニツカレタ母アレバ
行ツテソノ稲ノ束ヲ負ヒ
南ニ死ニサウナ人アレバ
行ツテコハガラナクテモイヽトイヒ
北ニケンクワヤソシヨウガアレバ
ツマラナイカラヤメロトイヒ
ヒデリノトキハナミダヲナガシ
サムサノナツハオロオロアルキ
ミンナニデクノボウトヨバレ
ホメラレモセズ
クニモサレズ
サウイフモノニ
ワタシハ
ナリタイ








宮沢賢治 (1896-1933)