THREE POEMS WITH SOUNDS &
REPORT OF A CERTAIN DEATH
TRANSLATED BY KAMAIKE SUSUMA & CID CORMAN
KUSANO SHIMPEI (1903––––) has written numerous volumes of poetry as well as essays, novels, stories, and criticism; he has edited the works of other poets, taught, translated, and lectured; he has run bars and eating stands and a large number of poetry mags; he has traveled widely and lived for two long periods in China (1921- 25, 1940-46); he is the central spirit of the Rekitei poetry group and a member of the Japanese PEN club executive committee.
POEMS BY KUSANO SHIMPEI
3 POEMS WITH SOUNDS
I: BLUE JINTA*
a rugged peaked mountain of rock, in almost
equilateral triangle eastward towers, at its
base extends a limitless waste known as the
Place of Ashes, in the South and North Vietnam
War there three hundred years ago but. also
because of war upon war thereafter the number of
human beings was appreciably diminished, there
were lots of mixed marriages, pure blacks or
pure Japanese rarely found.
now. in the Place of Ashes a spiral glass tower
stands, pennants with “midsummer craziness”
flutter atop, eighteen parcels of felt, rigged
in a crescent but. one for the jinta shack, the
other seventeen resting places for frogs.
(originally frogs preferred temperate zones, tropical
zones, subtropical zones and moisture but. since
the 1900s those like the spade-foot toad have burrowed
into the desert country around Arizona.) wine-colored
twilight came on. the spiral glass tower was lit by
arterial red and blue neon and then the “funny circus”
of illuminated news flew through the air the frogs
swarmed from their seventeen resting places.
•
the jinta made up of clarinet cornet bass-drum and tambourine blares away &.
(the commonest kind without a big fat boss or a madman or a gangling slave.)
the jinta blares away &.
a frog a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe begins to sing her come-on.
the new earth steaming.
every day every night hot springs.
lepidodendra for fans,
fanning hot flesh.
till earth feels cool.
scorpions wanting to bay at the moon,
black mist through city flowing,
lung-cancer chuckling.
(old! old!)
(marvellous! queen bee.)
this is really 20th century stuff.
suddenly Gambi leaps 15 yards, coming
down with a twirl like an ice-skater.
– dont need a ladder.
– nor a big cellophane net.
nor a rope nor frankly even a trapeze to sit on
but.
suddenly now a swing for six.
the jinta blaring away &.
just six jostling each other.
floating swinging seaweed cookies.
yun yun yun yuyuyun
yun yun yuyuyun
in the air song beginning to flow.
the Ashura heaven immense.
look, immense.
with all that moisture.
praise the great air!
look!
everywhere litmus blue &.
the spiral glass neon in a flash lights more &.
over the top of the peaked mountain a full moon.
(much more pockmarked than in 20th century nights.)
all over the wasteland so much diamond dust.
the jinta blaring away &.
in the midst of the Place of Ashes is Himulali tho.
in the blazing heart.
oenothera makiana.
the moon-colored flower.
the mirage lake ripples.
the sad stretch of it.
in your heart.
my moon-colored.
flower float.
(eh—.sembei* and caramels.)
– somebody seems to be crazy somewhere.
lemonade and sembei vendors, etc., there arent any.
(ok. I’ll give it the old traditional try.)
In the heavenly
brilliance in the breath of
a perfect spring day
the quiet heart is undone
with cherry blossoms falling.
(dont mock, the feeling’s no good.)
(classic, great.)
(mockery’s a vice, vice.)
the jinta blaring away &.
in the great space with a hop skip and a jump.
one after another bewilderingly.
the one leaping last a limping beauty.
(hey Lilimu, your asshole’s showing.)
(wa! ha! ha!)
(wa! ha! ha!)
(wa! ha! ha!)
the jinta blaring away &.
the chorines beginning.
like man with a belly-button.
like man growing hair.
the chorus making a ring in the Place of Ashes.
viscera wiggling transparently.
ahahahahahah.
blare away cornet bass-drum.
now all of you.
like man have fallen.
rararan rararan rararararan
rararan rararan rararararan
(hey! cut it out. stop.)
a deep voice booms out.
the “honest march” of electric news flowing in the air.
our brains are little but.
our hearts big (we’ve got plenty of nerve).
on this side and the other of the earth.
we’re smiling.
marchons marchons marchons
we’ve got no weapons but.
our lives rise and fall.
in the hot wastes and gasp but.
marchons marchons marchons
beget, flourish, go on. go on.
in scrimmages (diamond dust fragmentation)
thousands of frogs surge forth.
the jinta shrieks and reaches climax.
in the air.
snake fireworks begin to run.
ten thousand firework snakes.
shooshoopon shooshooshoosh confusion.
from the top of the peaked mountain.
with booo-whaam big cascading fireworks.
casting out nets.
shrieking jinta.
smoking full moon.
on earth big waves of frogs of waves.
II. THE BROKEN ORGAN
I’ve loved the intense.
winter.
summer.
the intense.
the seasons these two.
(the cannonade clouds seen supine in a boat of fixed seats.)
(the slashing hail that stung and stuck to my cheeks.)
now well along in life.
birds of prey behind.
to be drowned in fish.
pick wild rocambole and replant them in the fields.
dote on October’s small seamy eggplants.
declining autumn’s.
gold green bronze powdery.
sunlight seething in underbrush.
jays crying.
63 years already.
do
re
mi
fa
sol
la
ti
do
the high do. broken.
from the broken nose a faint/soft voice’s.
plaintiveness
(vomit.)
the ultimate climax became a far dream.
half-dead.
faint
off
faint
off
in the body were raging nebulae once.
now.
in my twilight a last cloud flag hanging.
III: HACHIJO* RHAPSODY
dadadan dadadan dadadan dadadan
nightwind-licked Kurashio crawling up field &.
three bonfires blazing.
cra-ra-rackling.
flames swinging.
dan dan dan dan
boys leopard-skins round their waists.
drumsticks carving the wind &.
dan dan dadadan
(dancing dance barebreasted crescent moon upon you.)
big August festival of life.
dance, drink. devour, drink, devour. dance.
a giant tossing dried mackerel into his gaping gullet.
(eating ta-go-be† too. taro. and so much bamboo-shoot potato)
from a jomon‡ cup demon-killing liquor.
big woman guzzling loads of rice brandy.
(hot mist burning belly) young female deer, snivelling imps.
let yourself go old women! topaz women, dance dance.
wheel of the sun ahdoro ahdoro ahdoro.
wheel of the moon ginga ginga ginga.
praised be heaven and earth!
O Gods. sing.
lice in the wild hair clinging to the shaking crawling into pores &.
crescent jade necklace swinging at breasts yun yun pulling torn off.
dan dan dan dan dan dan dan kakaka dan
kakaka dan kakaka kah dan kakakat dan dan kat
dan ka dan dan dan dan dan dan dan dan kakakat
oh. praise fire.
praise wind.
praise water.
praise earth.
praise sea turtle and bracken.
praise the life in all that lives.
praise cunnus and penis.
praise the sky and heaven and star.
dan dan dadadan
Brahms’ satellite rising.
from the dark dead end of heaven’s line.
along the shores of the Milky Way.
through the center of the Swan’s belly and lost in the depths of heaven.
oh. the long past and the long future mingle and make what is new strong. da da da.
yesterday and today lolling and languishing make what
is new weak. da da da.
bonfires blazing sound.
(pasania wood, camphorwood burn anything.)
dan dan dan dan
Hachijo night unadvancing.
satellite of Brahms!
friend of the Kojikif*
dadadan dadadan dadadan dadadan
REPORT OF A CERTAIN DEATH
Leah.
Leah’s dead.
holding Leah in my right hand. pouring tablesalt into her
open mouth. put in a basin on the study floor. for all
the aquarium pump’s bubble bubble air at her face Leah’s
mouth opening opening, her gills already motionless.
Leah.
Leah’s now slippery cold solid body, resting in my
two hands. all shining opaline &.
pale cerulean swimming in the opaline &.
near the dorsal fin blueblack spots like moles and a cometlike straight line.
& her eyes.
curious perfect black circles.
curdled blue sumi- drops—what pupils.
Where in Leah is death?
Where is death kept?
is there nowhere together life and death?
has death gone somewhere else through Leah?
the death gone through into my palms electrical &.
into my heart’s old cavern crept?
Leah whose death’s begun to live.
Leah done with death.
sleet slicked.
pulling Leah out of the pool with a big spoon-net.
her body already stiffly arched.
usually lying on back or side but.
Leah upright listing at about 800
(strong heart)
standing dead.
Leah.
one day you were standing on the lawn by the fan ledge.
and I on this side of the pool.
(there, that one’s Leah, heading this way. look look.)
pointing at one of them swimming in a group I.
(some resemblance eh? )
said to you.
huhuhu.
as if embarrassed you half-laughed but.
seemed to see your name in it.
here’s Leah now.
myself back at the basin.
not to bring it back to life.
but to see it wrapped in her native water for
a while before being wrapped soon in soil.
near the stove the glass door clouds from within.
reflecting in its mottled openings. snow-mingled.
Akitsu* sleet.
(26 Dec. 1967)
* a small raggle-tail music troupe and their makeshift music
* Japanese rice biscuits
* Hachijo is an island off Tokyo, famed as a place of exile, now a summer resort.
† all the foods are country vegetable delicacies
‡ old rope-pattern pottery
* the old legendry
* the suburb—rather rural—of Tokyo in which the poet lives.