Poem
Kazue Shinkawa
A Sheet of Ocean
I have memories ofbuying a sheet of beautiful ocean.
In a market with a ceiling of blue sky
I happened to see a man selling oceans
who, like a carpet merchant, was spreading them out and rolling them up, spreading them out and rolling them up,
though like a landscape seen in an afternoon nap
I can’t clearly remember what the market was like.
I was able to
go to the ocean, without drowning, balanced,
because like a vessel just launched
I had a brilliantly drawn waterline.
But that lasted only for a while.
When we moved, I rolled it up again
and put it in the shed behind our new house
along with junk and forgot about it.
From the crack by the door of the shed a seagull
suddenly flew up this morning, flapping its wings, to my consternation.
Reviving at this late date — what can I do?
What can I do with the ocean
that has started flooding the backyard
without even giving me time to redraw the waterline that has peeled off?
© Translation: 1999, Hiroaki Sato
From: Not a Metaphor
Publisher: P.S., A Press, Middletown Springs, VT, USA, 1999
From: Not a Metaphor
Publisher: P.S., A Press, Middletown Springs, VT, USA, 1999
A SHEET OF OCEAN
© 1983, Kazue Shinkawa
From: Shinsen Gendaishi Bunko 122 "Shinsen Sinkawa Kazue Shishuh"
Publisher: Shichosha, Tokyo
From: Shinsen Gendaishi Bunko 122 "Shinsen Sinkawa Kazue Shishuh"
Publisher: Shichosha, Tokyo
Poems
Poems of Kazue Shinkawa
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A Sheet of Ocean
I have memories ofbuying a sheet of beautiful ocean.
In a market with a ceiling of blue sky
I happened to see a man selling oceans
who, like a carpet merchant, was spreading them out and rolling them up, spreading them out and rolling them up,
though like a landscape seen in an afternoon nap
I can’t clearly remember what the market was like.
I was able to
go to the ocean, without drowning, balanced,
because like a vessel just launched
I had a brilliantly drawn waterline.
But that lasted only for a while.
When we moved, I rolled it up again
and put it in the shed behind our new house
along with junk and forgot about it.
From the crack by the door of the shed a seagull
suddenly flew up this morning, flapping its wings, to my consternation.
Reviving at this late date — what can I do?
What can I do with the ocean
that has started flooding the backyard
without even giving me time to redraw the waterline that has peeled off?
© 1999, Hiroaki Sato
From: Not a Metaphor
Publisher: 1999, P.S., A Press, Middletown Springs, VT, USA
From: Not a Metaphor
Publisher: 1999, P.S., A Press, Middletown Springs, VT, USA
A Sheet of Ocean
I have memories ofbuying a sheet of beautiful ocean.
In a market with a ceiling of blue sky
I happened to see a man selling oceans
who, like a carpet merchant, was spreading them out and rolling them up, spreading them out and rolling them up,
though like a landscape seen in an afternoon nap
I can’t clearly remember what the market was like.
I was able to
go to the ocean, without drowning, balanced,
because like a vessel just launched
I had a brilliantly drawn waterline.
But that lasted only for a while.
When we moved, I rolled it up again
and put it in the shed behind our new house
along with junk and forgot about it.
From the crack by the door of the shed a seagull
suddenly flew up this morning, flapping its wings, to my consternation.
Reviving at this late date — what can I do?
What can I do with the ocean
that has started flooding the backyard
without even giving me time to redraw the waterline that has peeled off?
© 1999, Hiroaki Sato
From: Not a Metaphor
Publisher: 1999, P.S., A Press, Middletown Springs, VT, USA
From: Not a Metaphor
Publisher: 1999, P.S., A Press, Middletown Springs, VT, USA
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