Tanikawa Shuntarō

FOUR POEMS

TRANSLATED BY HAROLD WRIGHT

INTRODUCTION

TANIKAWA SHUNTARŌ, the only son of a philosopher, was born December 15, 1931, in Tokyo.

At an early age Shuntarō displayed his intellectual prowess; in the second primary school in Tokyo, he was often at the head of the class, although he later admitted not having enjoyed school. At this time he began to spend summers in North Karuizawa near the famed volcano, Mt. Asama, a place celebrated by poets a generation before him.

In 1945, as the air raids on Tokyo increased, Shuntarō, aged fifteen, learned at first hand about the ravages of war as he bicycled around the ruins, in which charred bodies remained. He was evacuated to Kyoto with his mother in July of that year. The following year he returned to Tokyo, where he resumed his middle-school education.

At the age of eighteen, with the encouragement of friends, Shuntarō began to write poetry. Within a year his growing dislike for school became overt: his grades began to deteriorate, and he occasionally quarrelled with his teachers. Finally he changed schools and continued as a part-time student. Although he finished high school, he had no desire to attend the university.

With an introduction from Miyoshi Tatsuji in December, 1950, Shuntarō began publishing individual poems such as “Nero” in the magazine Bungakkai (Literary World). His first book of poetry appeared in 1952; the twenty-one-year-old poet entitled his work Nijuoku Konen no Kodoku (Twenty Billion Light Years of Loneliness). The next year Rokujūni no Sonett о (Sixty-Two Sonnets) was published, and he joined the magazine Kai (Oar).

In 1955 Shuntarõ ended a year-old marriage and offered his readers a new volume of poetry, Ai ni Τsuite (Concerning Love). He also began to write radio plays. Expanding his perspective still further, Shuntarō published in 1956 a collection of his own photographs and poems entitled Ehon (Picture Book).

Okubo Tomoko became Shuntarō’s second wife in 1957. At this time he wrote a book of essays, Ai no Panse (Thoughts of Love). He built a home in Tokyo the following year.

Sekai E (To the World), a collection of essays concerning poetry, was added to Shuntarō’s rapidly increasing repertoire in 1959. In i960 he produced a book of poems entitled Anata Ni (To You) as well as a three-act comedy; and in this same year his son was born.

In 1961 Shuntarō’s satirical poems on current subjects became a regular feature of the Shukan Asahi (The Asahi Weekly).21, volume of verse, came out in this year as did a book of essays, Adamu to Ibu no Taiwa (A Dialogue between Adam and Eve).

In 1964 he published Rakushu Kujuku (Satirical Poems Ninety Nine) and participated in the filming of the Tokyo Olympics. In 1965 Shuntarō, who now had a second child—a two-year-old daughter —produced a book of children’s poems, Nihongo no Okeiko (Japanese Lessons) and a children’s story. Also Tanikawa Shuntarō Shisho (Selected Poems of Tanikawa Shuntarō) was published.

When he visted Western Europe and the United States on a Japan Society grant in 1966, Shuntarō found that Americans assumed automatically that a Japanese poet wrote haiku. At this time he began plans for a translation of modern Japanese poetry into English.

Shuntarō was no less prolific a writer after his return to Japan. In 1967 he published a collection of short stories and wrote a film script, Kyo (Kyoto).

In January of the following year Ai no Shishu (Collection of Love Poems) appeared. The Tanikawa Shuntarõ Shishu (Poems of Tanikawa Shuntarō) became available in August, and a smaller collection of selected poems appeared in December. A collection of poems and photographs, Tabi (Journey), came out in November, 1968.

Tanikawa Shuntarō represented Japan in the International Poetry Festival that was held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on April 13, 14, 15, 1970. The poems that follow are selected from those that he and I read there.

TANIKAWA SHUNTARŌ / FOUR POEMS

SADNESS II

Sadness

A half-peeled apple

Not a metaphor

Not a poem

Merely there

A half-peeled apple

Sadness

Merely there

Yesterday’s evening paper

Merely there

Merely there

A warm breast

Merely there

Nightfall

Sadness

Apart from words

Apart from the heart

Merely there

The things of today.

REQUEST

Turn inside out turn me

Plow the fields inside me

Dry up the wells inside me

Turn inside out turn me

Wash out my insides

And maybe you’ll find a splendid pearl

Turn inside out turn me

Is the inside of me the sea?

Is it the night

Is it a distant road

Is it a polyethylene bag

Turn inside out turn me

What is growing inside of me

A field of overripe cactus plants?

A premature offspring of a unicorn?

A buckeye tree that failed to become a violin?

Turn inside out turn me

Make the wind blow through me

Let my dreams catch cold

Turn inside out turn me

Let my concepts weather away.

Turn inside out

Turn inside out please turn me

Please shelter my skin

My forehead is frostbitten

My eyes are red with bashfulness

My lips are weary of kisses

Turn inside out

Turn inside out please turn me

Let my insides worship the sun

Spread my stomach and pancreas over the grass

Evaporate the reddened darkness!

Stuff the blue sky into my lungs!

With my spermaduct all entangled

Have me trampled by black stud horses

Please have my heart and brain, using chopsticks of plainwood,

Be eaten by the one I love

Turn inside out

Turn inside out please turn me

Let all the words within me

Be chatted completely away and quickly

Let the singing quartet of instruments

Be resounded completely away

Let the aged birds within me

be flown completely away

Let the love within me

Be lost in an evil gambling den.

Turn inside out, please turn, inside out, turn me

I give away the fake pearl inside me

So turn inside out, please turn, inside out, turn me

Silence alone speaks softly within me

Let me depart

Outside of myself

To that shade of trees

Over that woman

Into that sand.

LOVE
for Paul Klee

Forever

for so long, forever

bound for so far

for so long, for so far, joined together

for sake of the weak

for sake of those in love but separate

or those who live alone

forever

for so long, forever, we need unending song

so heaven and earth will not quarrel

so the separate will be joined again

for the return of a single heart to the people’s heart

and trenches to ancient villages

and the sky to innocent birds

and fairy tales to little children

and honey to the diligent bee

and the world to the things without names

for so far

for so long, for so far, joined together

as if about to end itself completely

as if about to perfect itself completely

forever like the blueprint of god

for so long, forever, approaching perfection

so all can be joined together

so all separate things will cease to be

so all can continue to live under one name:

the tree and the woodcutter

the young girl and blood

the window and love

the song and another song

so that quarreling is over

to end the useless things for sake of life

in such plentifulness

for so long, forever, that image spreads

as if to have the world become the imitator,

the image that beckons with a gentle glance.

SONNET 45

When the wind is strong

The earth resembles someone’s kite;

Even during the full noon hours

People feel already the night is there.

The wind is without words,

It merely whirls around and frets.

I think of wind on another star

Wondering if they can form a friendship.

On earth there is nighttime and the day

What do other stars do during these times?

How can they bear to spread in silence?

By day the blue sky is telling lies

While night mutters the truth, we sleep

And when morning comes we say we’ve dreamed.