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.