しみじみと冬の白雲仰ぎをり八束髭欲しかなしみの髭
earnestly
I am gazing up
at the white winter clouds –
I want a long beard,
a beard of sorrow
否定され踏みにじられてなほも書く抒情詩といふ霜のまほろば
being denied, being trampled
yet shall I write
lyric poetry
which is the great
and splendid frosty land
年ふればわれの狂気も薄れきて『ローマ字日記』また読みにけり
as I grow older
my madness, too,
is abating –
I have read again
‘The Romaji Diary’
吉野より求めし杉の箸をもて黒豆のごとき渾沌つつく
I stab at
the chaos of black beans
with cedar chopsticks
which I purchased
from Yoshino
眠る間に彼の世に運ばれゆきたしと思ひつつ今朝うつつに目覚む
while wishing
I would be carried off
to the other world
during my sleep
I wake this morning to reality
死ねばしまひなればなにゆゑ生きゐるや赤き椿の花の蜜吸ふ
if I die
that will be the end –
what am I living for?
bees sucking the nectar
from camellias’ red flowers
取り返しつかぬひと生のおほどかな冬入りつ日は画布のごとけむ
the easy-going
winter sunset
of a life
irretrievable,
might have resembled a sheet of canvas
とこしへのいまをわれありこがらしの鳴りにコートの襟たてて 往く
I exist
in this eternal moment —
to the howling
of a bleak wintry wind
I pull up my collar and go off
望郷のこころ唾吐くやうに棄ついづこの地にも人はぎりぎり
as if spitting
I cast away the longing
for my hometown –
everywhere men
are scraping a living
しらじらとわれのかたちの消ゆるまで宇宙開闢以前の記憶
until my body has disappeared gradually – recollections of the time before the universe began
湿り気をおびし梅の木ありしこと血の疣となりふくらむ蕾
there was a plum tree
covered all over
in moisture –
its buds, blood warts,
will swell
かしぎつつ進む刳舟いにしへの海わたり来しそのこころざし
a dugout canoe
that tilted as it proceeded
crossed the ocean,
arriving in the distant past –
what were its aspirations?
つまらなき歌詠みひと日すぎゆかむなべてが透きて見ゆる冬の日
I shall spend
this one day writing
trifling tanka,
a winter’s day when
all looks transparent
うとまれて生くるもよしと思ふまで夢の国原むらさきの海
I think
it’s fine to live,
even scorned, i
n this dreamland
by this purple sea
